It Shall Begin and End With Pain
by Talkingbirdguy
Summary: Getting hit in the head by a discus at a Track and Field competition would normally be followed by a trip to the hospital, yeah? Well not for Ryan. The last thing he remembers is getting hit and not much else before waking up with a killer headache and a lot of questions. My own spin on the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon universe.
1. Axe and Sin

It Shall Begin and End With Pain chap 1

Disclaimer: My OCs are all mine, but all the Pokemon are not. I'm not getting any cash or credit for this, get it?

* * *

Axe and Sin

Chapter 1

"Axe! Aaaaxe! A-hey what's that?" My pounding cranium registered the sounds of someone calling to another and I rubbed my head in the attempt to rid myself of the feeling that my brain was setting off high level explosives in the attempt to leave my skull. Honestly, if it felt as bad as I did then, I wouldn't blame it.

"Could ya please shut it," I moaned in a low tone while I curled up and held my head in my arms. What did I do to get my head hurting so badly? A hangover? No, I don't drink. I'm not that kind of teenager.

"Hey Axe! I think someone's laying over here!"

"A fine observation, lady. Now go away," I muttered lowly and thought back to what exactly would have caused such a horrible headache. The last thing I remembered was the track meet and-Oh. Oh yeah. Someone bumped me onto the field and a badly thrown discus glanced off of my head. It gave me a bad headache and some disapproving stares at the sound of my cursing, but I don't remember passing out.

Maybe I got a concussion and passed out later on? Maybe in a field? That would explain the grass I felt underneath me. But where were the sound of the crowds that attended the competition?

"Hey." A poke accompanied the voice. "Are you okay?"

I bit back the searing remark. She was just checking up on me. It wouldn't do to press my bad mood off onto her.

"Just a bad headache. Could you grab my coach for me? Just look for the balding guy who is shouting at his team in a mixture of profanity, encouragement, and profanity filled encouragement."

"Uh, I don't see anybody else around here. Did you get separated from a group headed to our town?"

How did this girl not see the mass of people? As a better question, why wasn't I hearing the crowds of people? Did I wander off in a haze? Why didn't anybody ask if I was okay? Did they ask?

"Town? We're in the middle of a city. Right?" My eyes opened so that they were just slits and I blocked the light that pricked at my retina painfully. A wave of nausea rose and I curled up a little tighter.

"You really look bad. Did someone attack you? That's a pretty bad bruise on your head."

"I think I have a concussion. Some idiot threw a discus in the wrong direction and it glanced off of me. I think I may need to visit a hospital."

"Discus? Is that an attack? If this is what it looks like if it just glances you, I do not want to see what happens if it connects. What's a hospital?"

I didn't respond for a moment, wholeheartedly disturbed by the fact that she didn't know what a hospital was.

"Oi, Sin!" This girl's name is Sin? I hoped it was short for something.

"Over here!" I covered my ears and groaned. The nausea was getting worse. Hopefully this other person has actual sense and could get me to some medical help. By that point, I would have eagerly accepted some Advil, at the very least. Damn that horrible discus thrower!

"Who's that? Never seen-woah!" The cause for his words being cut off was due to my nausea getting the better of me. I pushed myself up and away from Sin and where I heard Axe's voice coming from. I leaned against a tree and let my vomit fly to the side of it.

I collapsed on my side and started shivering. Voices drifted into my ears, their meaning lost. I felt my world turn as several hands hoisted me and I finally gave up on any pretense of consciousness.

* * *

Some sweet scent drew me from the confines of slumber. I still felt awful, but nowhere near as bad as before. Faint sounds that vaguely sounded like voices came from what I thought was another room. A damp cloth covered my forehead and eyes, preventing me from observing my surroundings.

I sat there for a few minutes and tried to get back to sleep. That headache, while not causing me to feel overwhelmingly nauseous, still pounded away with the tune of my heartbeat.

Did that new guy, Axe, know what a hospital was? The reason I assumed I was in a hospital was due to the clinical smell and soft pillow underneath my head. I had never stayed in a hospital for any length of time before, but I felt as though this was what it would be like.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone approaching. Some cloth was pushed aside and I moved a little to let whoever it was know I was awake.

"Goodie! You're awake." A high pitched voice rang out. "I'm Happiny or Hap, for short. Can you tell me your name?"

"Ryan."

"Nice to meet you, Ryan," she said in an excited manner that made me want to grind my teeth. People who were perpetually happy and myself did not go together.

"Sin told that she and Axe found you just outside the town and in pretty bad shape. They brought you to the Guild's Medical Room. What happened to your head?"

"Some idiot threw a discus in the direction of the watchers. Thing would have missed me if someone else hadn't bumped me off balance at the last second. But it glanced off of my head and left me with a bad headache. I didn't think it had left a concussion, but I suppose I was wrong."

"Sin mentioned that. A Discus. What is that?"

Had none of these people ever heard of Track and Field?!

"It's a small, very dense, disc-like thing that is thrown in competitions. You've seriously never heard of the it? It's in the Olympics."

"The what?"

My voice stopped for a moment before I remembered what she had said earlier. She said 'Guild Medical Room'. Not Hospital. What guild even existed anymore?

"What is the name of this town?" I couldn't have walked far. Even if I did, I knew the names of all the towns and cities near where the competition took place.

"Ivycross."

The name rang only an alarm bell in my head.

I reached up to pull the cloth off of my head and the woman said, "You really need to-"

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I've never heard of Ivycross. There is no Ivycross near where I live and I would be really grateful if I could access a phone and have my parents come and pick me up." Maybe there was an Ivycross around in southern Florida. But I didn't remember ever coming to one. So that left two options. One: I had amnesia and forgot coming to the place. Or two: she was lying to me.

"Phone?" she asked questioningly.

I pushed myself up and drew the cloth off of my head.

I was about to respond with something biting when the sight of the 'person' I had been talking to came into focus.

My voice locked and nothing came out. This sight. It was because of something they gave me. It had to be. Was this some elaborate joke?

"Ryan?"

"Happiny. I had thought it was just a coincidence," I muttered only partly to myself.

"Huh?"

"Did you put anything in my system? A hallucinogen?"

"No? Why would we do anything like that?"

"Because the sight in front of me isn't supposed to exist." I could tell it wasn't some sort of costume. And if it was some sort of machine, then it was impossible to tell.

"Maybe you should lay back down," she suggested and moved forward with her arm outstretched.

I leaned away and that was when I saw myself for the first time.

I saw that my legs were much much shorter than what I was used to. The fact that they were covered in black fur and in a shape not like any shape a leg should be in told me that I wasn't exactly the same as I was when my head was hit.

"How's that Riolu doing, Happiny?" a questioning voice asked from what sounded like the next room.

I blanked out and didn't hear what the response was.

This wasn't a dream. It hurt too much for that.

This wasn't some drug induced hallucination. Everything was too vivid and focused for that.

This wasn't a prank. I could feel the aura organs hanging on both sides of my head. I hadn't noticed them due to my headache, but they were obvious right then.

Happiny pushed me down gently and I went without a word. I only heard some mild buzzing in my ears that I assumed was someone talking. Too bad I couldn't understand anything. I think I went into a mild state of shock.

Someone put the cloth back onto my head and the sounds of conversation moved away.

I felt the fur. It was real. I was a Pokemon.

* * *

I woke up and felt a mild ache. It was loads better than how I had been feeling before, and I was grateful for it.

I held up what should have been my hand, and confirmed that it was, indeed, a paw. A Riolu's paw. My paw.

I set it down and thought about my current situation. Panicking would have served no purpose, so I made a list of what I knew.

I was a Pokemon. Specifically a Riolu. I had been transported into the Pokemon realm by one means or another. I was almost certain that this wasn't a dream or hallucination or any form of madness. I knew some details about Pokemon from having watched it when I was younger. I could not remember anything substantial after getting hit by the discus, so whatever happened might have been after that point.

Perhaps I could get in touch with a scientist and make my way back to my world? I set that idea aside for a later time.

From what Happiny said, I was in a Guild. That meant I was somewhere that Pokemon are, at least to some degree, civilized. Pokemon could use different moves that could do amazing things. Pokemon also seemed to have a higher healing rate than humans. That could explain the near non-existent headache that replaced the mind numbing one from earlier. Did Pokemon here match the ones from the show, moveset and mannerisms alike? What did-

A growl made me revise my next question: what did Pokemon eat? Was this body able to process meat? Would my stomach reject plants? This needed to be answered soon. Preferably by eating.

As the growling sound hadn't brought someone running, I lifted myself up and turned so my legs hung from the bed. I was dreading trying to walk on my new legs. They were just so oddly shaped.

After some hesitation, I pushed off of the bed and stood. It felt a bit like standing on your toes, but was manageable. I'm embarrassed to say I twisted around in a circle twice before I realized that it was, as expected, a tail that was behind me. Maybe I wasn't as healed up as I thought. I glanced around and made sure that no one had seen me before taking a few steps.

The tail kept me steady and I didn't have to use my arms to balance any. Running might have to wait a bit, but walking was alright. Once I confirmed this, I made my way out of the room and found myself in a long hallway. It looked to have been cut out of solid rock and I saw evidence of tools having been used in its making. Dim light was provided by some odd crystals that gave off a faintly green light. They were embedded into the wall at intervals so that there were no large patches of darkness anywhere. The hallway was about two or so meters wide, by my guess, and only about two meters high. I wouldn't expect any larger Pokemon to be able to fit down here.

I heard a clacking sound and turned to see a figure walking down the narrow hallway towards me.

I saw that it was a Sneasel that walked towards me, looking somewhat absentminded.

"Hello," I decided to speak first. Those claw-like hands looked sharp. I didn't want to be slashed by startling the Pokemon.

The Sneasel looked up and it took a moment for recognition to appear.

"You're the Riolu we hauled here." The voice identified the Sneasel as a female, and it also held familiarity.

"Are you Sin?" It was the same voice I heard when I woke up the first time.

"Yeah. You're Ryan, right? The whole Guild has been talking about you."

I nodded to the question, but said nothing about the other. What had they been saying?

"How are you feeling? The last time I saw you, you looked horrible!"

I grimaced at the memory. "Better. Little headache is about it. Thanks for bringing me here."

She waved her paw in a carefree manner as she said, "It's nothing. We were on our way back from a mission and happened to see you."

I searched my memory for what she could be talking about and came up blank. "Mission?"

"Yes, a mission. You do get that this is a Guild, right? That's what Guilds do: take missions."

I blinked as I processed the new information. It was very Naruto-ish. They take missions and, probably upon completion, get paid. Much like the hidden villages did.

"Right. Was it interesting?"

"Meh. We just restocked the Guild's food supply. Took forever."

Grunt work. This told me that Sin must have been a lower level member of the Guild. A new recruit, perhaps? Or maybe she was weaker than she looked? I would need more information before making assumptions.

My stomach growled at the mention of food, much to my chagrin.

"Just wait in there and I'll bring you something," she gestured towards the Medical Room and walked past me.

I did as she said and went back into the room. Seeing nothing else to do, I sat on the bed I had been using and waited.

Some time later, I heard Sin's clacking steps walk in and stopped examining my paws before she noticed. She was holding a platter with a small variety of food and said, "Happiny said for you to eat slowly and for me to smack you if you begin to chow down like a certain Treecko I know." She grinned like she expected me to get it, and I blinked in confusion.

"Oh right. You don't know Axe. Word of advice: never let him get near your food."

I nodded and resisted the urge to snatch it out of her hands. While very rude, hunger makes one have the worst of desires.

I accepted the food with a thanks and bit into a berry eagerly. If Happiny gave the okay to eat and Sin wasn't slapping it out of my hand, I was going to guess that it was not poisonous to Riolu. I doubted that they would have wasted so much effort in making me better only to kill me off. The berry had the texture of a strawberry and firmness of a pear that had yet to soften. I didn't focus on the taste so much as the relief that having food in my belly brought me.

Per the Doc's orders, I ate slowly.

I realized that Sin was still in the room and was leaning against the wall. I had been chowing down for the last ten minutes or so and she had waited in silence.

"Sorry about the lack of conversation. I'm just hungry." I felt like she deserved some sort of explanation.

"Axe is the same when he's hungry. I'm used to it after being on the same team as him for a few months."

"So how did you two meet?" I tried to keep the conversation going while allowing me to eat in between responses. A meeting story would take some time.

"I kicked his ass for stealing my food and the rest is history."

Or maybe it would take all of twenty seconds. Great.

"How long have you been a member of the Guild?"

"About four or five months ago. Axe joined three months ago and I got saddled with him. Been doing mostly little stuff since then."

Happiny walked in just then along with a green Pokemon I recognized as a Treecko. Was this the Axe that Sin had been talking about?

The fact that he immediately zeroed in on my platter and Happiny slapped him in the head with a, "Don't you dare!" certainly helped answer that.

"I guess that you are Axe? Thanks for bringing me here." I tossed a berry I had yet to eat at him and it was in his mouth almost directly after touching his paw.

"How do you feel?" Happiny asked.

"Mild headache that will probably go away pretty soon is it. Otherwise, I'm fine."

She nodded and said, "Then once you are done, you can meet our Guild Leader. She'll want to meet you personally."

I nodded and finished up what was left. Happiny had Sin guide me to the Leader's office and Axe tagged along.

"So what is the Guild Leader like?" It would be best if I had something to go on before I met her. Better than going in blind.

Sin looked at Axe, who shrugged. They seemed to have a silent conversation with each other before Axe said, "She's very, enthusiastic?"

Sin nodded along. "Yeah, enthusiastic."

That told me exactly jack.

They led me through several areas where the hallways got big enough to allow larger Pokemon to walk through them. We encountered one or two Pokemon and Axe gave the excuse 'Guild Leader wants to see him' to ward them off.

After several minutes of walking through hallways and down two flights of stairs, we stopped in front of some impressive doors.

"We'll wait for you out here." They took up positions leaning against the wall opposite to the door.

I turned to the door and, with some trepidation, pushed the door open.

Out of all the things I expected to see, only two things were fulfilled.

The desk with a mountain of paperwork, check. The large, quite menacing, Feraligatr sitting behind the desk, check.

That's where things deviated from the norm. For one, the smell of alcohol was prominent. Why? Well because said Feraligatr was drunk.

"You must be the brat that Sin and Axe brought! C'mon in!" She waved for me to come closer and I closed the door behind me as I came in.

"Yes, my name is Ryan."

"Nice to meetchya, Ron," she drawled and took a gulp from a pitcher in front of her.

I ignored the mistake and sat in the chair that she waved at wordlessly, too busy chugging away to speak.

So I waited until the pitcher finally emptied into her gullet before speaking again.

"Thanks for taking care of me-"

"Naw, it's nothin kid. Hey, how woulda you like to join da Gu- Guild?" Her words were becoming more and more slurred as the drink went to her system, but I had a feeling the offer was genuine.

I considered it for a minute. I was in a world with no money, no home, and no clue as to where I could possibly go or do to get either of those. Heck, even this world's social structure was unknown to me. It might be a warlord setting for all I know and I just happened to get dropped off near a more civilized one.

"Yes, I'll join. Thank you." If necessary, I would just run. Until then, I would do as I was told.

She nodded and, from seemingly nowhere, shoved a small bottle towards me and held her own pitcher out in a gesture I recognized from my world.

I tapped the much smaller bottle against another pitcher she held, only eliciting a hollow thud, and she announced, "I'm too slammed to actually come up with a good speech, so welcome to the Ivycross Guild!"

She tossed the pitcher back with practiced ease and I just tipped mine back slowly. I had never been one of those high schoolers to drink illegally. I doubted that I, with how small I was, could handle my drink.

I allowed a tiny amount to touch my tongue and thanked G-or should I say Arceus? Whatever! I thanked whosoever was watching out for me that I hadn't chugged it. The stuff was nasty!

I pretended to drink a little of it, then legitimately coughed because it was just so awful.

Finally, she just laughed loudly and said, "Just join Sin an an-"

"Axe?"

"Yeah! Jus go with em." She waved me away and I set the bottle down before leaving the office.

"How'd it go?" Sin asked when I closed the door behind myself.

"I can see what you meant by enthusiastic. She's a joyful drinker. She told me to just go with you two. Oh, and that I'm a member of the Guild now."

This was met with silence in which Sin facepawed, Axe groaned, and I wondered what caused those reactions.

"And she saddles us with the rookie," Sin muttered. "Just perfect."

"Sorry. I'll do my best not to slow you down," I apologized. I didn't expect to be put with the two of them, but was grateful for it. They were two of the very few people I actually knew in the world.

"Lets go and talk to Tock," Axe suggested. "He's the one who takes care of inducting new members to the Guild. He'll give you the standard supply kit."

Sin nodded and led the way. We took several more flights of stairs and I asked, "Just how deep in the ground does this place go?" I wasn't getting tired, but stairs do grow monotonous fast.

Sin tilted her head to the side in thought. "Let's see. The Medical Room is on the second sub level. The Guild Leader's office is on the fourth and our rooms are on the third. I think there are six levels total, but the lowest is the basement and is hardly used. We're headed to the first, where Tock accepts new missions and handles mainly finances and paperwork that doesn't concern the Guild as a whole. That's the Guild Leader's job."

I nodded and asked, "I bet it sucks to have to go up all these stairs in the morning."

They both sighed and nodded with a slump.

I noticed that the lighting had changed slightly and looked up to see what looked to be natural sunlight streaming into the entrance to the stairs. We finished the last few stairs and I blinked away the tears that rose from coming out of the dimmer stairs.

Claws wrapped around my forearm and Sin yanked me out of the way of a group of Pokemon that walked past us and into the stairway. One of them, a Sandshrew, muttered an apology.

"This way," Sin let go and walked towards an open door with a sign that read 'Tock'.

We walked in and a tired looking Toxicroak set down a paper he had been presumably reading. His eyes examined me for a moment before he looked to Sin.

"Good afternoon, Sin. Axe. What was the Guild Leader's decision?"

"She said he could join and she stuck us with him. No offense."

"None taken." Very few people would be happy to take on a rookie and I understood that.

Tock reached down from behind the desk and set a tan backpack on his desk. The thump it elicited told me that it already had some stuff inside.

"Inside are the items as follows: a topographical map of the region, compass, basic first aid supplies, the official Ivycross Guild badge, a notepad, and a pencil for writing a report of the mission. Please sign this," he pushed a form forward along with his quill and a container of ink.

"If you sign this form, then you will be an official member of this Guild with all the responsibilities that come along with it. You may leave at any point, but you are required to hand in your badge and announce it personally to myself or the Guildmaster. Failure to do the former will label you as a criminal. The latter is so we can be certain that someone does not try and strip you of your standing in the Guild illegally."

I read the form quickly and nodded once before signing it. It went into a bit more detail regarding the details Tock had mentioned, but the same information was there. It also mentioned that we would only get a cut of the full earnings for each mission, but I somehow expected that. The Guild had to get its money somehow. There were some other things that I read before signing the document with my first name. With how sloppy it was, I didn't want to attempt my last name for fear it would be unreadable.

"Welcome to Ivycross Guild. Represent us with pride and complete your missions well. I expect you two," he nodded to Sin and Axe, "to teach him the ropes."

They made noises of understanding while Tock set the document to the side for it to dry. We left his office after I grabbed the backpack.

* * *

The next hour was somewhat of a blur. Axe insisted that they show me around town and Sin had to tell him 'No!' on no less than twenty seven occasions. They introduced me to the Guild's main supplier, Ivysaur, and we looked at what he had for a bit before moving on.

The abilities some of the objects had seemed bizarre. Could a seed really allow you to breath an explosive burst of fire? A small orb had the ability to teleport you to the exit of wherever you are? Those small discs that could teach you certain moves, but only once?

I decided that, until I tested everything for myself, I would treat the logic of this world with caution.

We spent several hours looking through the town before Sin finally gave in to Axe's fifty-third request to stop for food. There was this nice little place that made the food in front of us. The tricks that Scyther pulled off with a small sliver of meat deserved the applause we gave him afterwards.

Sin and Axe asked me some questions about where I was from and how I had come to be where they found me. I redirected their questions about my past for the most part and came up with logical sounding lies when I couldn't. What else was I supposed to do? Tell them that I came from a world where they only existed in fiction? Yeah, that would be excellent team building right there.

As for the latter, I told them the truth. I was hit in the head with a discus and was not sure how I got there. I just explained what a discus was and how it was used when Axe finished eating and it was all Sin and I could do to defend our own food. This left no room for discussion and we finished quickly.

Sin cursed when we walked outside and she looked up at the quickly darkening sky.

"What's wr- hey!" They suddenly started running and I forced my body into the action of running. I was somewhat ungainly, but I caught up to them quickly. I could fix my form later.

"Curfew! Anybody who's not out on a mission or isn't a high enough member must be in the Guild by sundown. We've gotta hurry or we'll be in trouble!" The way Axe said trouble made it obvious that he at least had been out after curfew at least once or knew someone who had been.

I steadily found a way of running that felt natural and was soon matching my new teammate's pace with some ease. I wondered just how fit that body of mine really was. Did I have the same muscle/fat ratio as with my old body? Was it because I was a runner in the other world that this body sprinted with ease?

I spied the Guild, which sat atop a large hill with stairs leading up to it, and wondered if the nonchalant look was on purpose. It looked like it was a simple building with only the sign, 'Ivycross Guild' to differentiate it from another random building. No one would expect the elaborate tunnel system that housed the bulk of the Guild's underground. The big doors were open, thankfully, and we sprinted towards them.

We made it, just barely, as Tock was coming out of his office. He gave us a stern look.

"Just don't make it a recurring theme," he ordered and began to close the large doors. He pushed a latch into place as we escaped underground.

"Close one," I commented, and noticed that Axe was breathing a little hard from the long sprint. Sin was also breathing hard, but not as badly as Axe.

"Why aren't you breathing hard?" Axe asked, giving me a stink eye.

I shrugged and said, "Running is easy. Where are we headed?"

"Curfew means that we have to be in the guild by, or soon after, sundown. We are encouraged to go to sleep so we can be well rested in the morning, but it's not required," Sin explained as we descended the stairs.

"Supper, which is provided in the mess hall, ends about the same time as curfew," Axe added in a forlorn tone.

Sin smacks Axe and I snort at their antics.

We got down to the third sub level and I saw that there were a lot more doors down the hallway than I had seen elsewhere.

"Is this where everyone sleeps?"

"Everyone who doesn't live in the guild, yeah. Some decide to get a place of their own and just come to the guild building to accept missions. The Guild Leader usually sleeps in her office and Tock sometimes doesn't sleep at all."

I blinked in surprise at the last the he said and asked, "Insomniac?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. This it?" I asked because Sin had turned to the right and opened a door.

"Uh huh," Axe answered and strolled right in. I followed and found myself in a room that was roughly ten by ten meters. Two small cushioned mats that looked to be well used and disheveled lay on opposite sides of the room. A third, neat looking, mat was situated right in the middle. The other two had a few personal items next to them, so I guessed that the middle was for me. They didn't complain when I set my bag next to it.

"You snore?"

"Uh, no."

"Good. Be warned, Axe does snore sometimes," Sin glares over at the Treecko, who had already laid down and was breathing slower than before.

"He nods off quickly," I commented.

Sin rolled her eyes and said, "If he had the chance, he would just relax, eat, and sleep all day long." She got out a small stone and began sliding it down each claw multiple times.

"I have to sharpen them every day to keep them useful."

"Must be tedious."

"Not really. Not when I get such fine," she held a claw up in the light so that it gleamed, " _results_."

I made a mental note to not get on the receiving end of her claws any time soon, and nodded in appreciation.

"On that sharp note, goodnight!"

I got myself comfortable and pulled the blankets over my body. The room was a pleasant temperature, but the blankets were comfortable and it was hard for me to fall asleep without something on top of me. Waking up to find myself burning hot be damned!

I turned so that I was facing the wall and closed my eyes. The repetitive sound of Sin sharpening her claws made my eyes feel heavy. The glowing crystals that lit the room in a dull light darkened soon after the sound stopped and I remembered nothing more.

* * *

So here I am, trying a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfic. I've got a basic idea down and hope I can see this through. To those who have read my other Pokemon fics, as you've probably noticed, there will be a bit of cursing. I am going to trying to incorporate a bit of profanity into my writing, you have been warned. I'm going to try to make it tasteful, I promise. But if it turns you off that much, then please go to one of my other Pokemon fics instead and don't even touch my Naruto fic.

Please review and tell me how you like this, how I can improve, and any suggestions/comments you have for me. Feel free to PM me whenever and I'll respond as soon as I can.


	2. The First Dungeon

It Shall Begin and End in Pain chap 2

Four days! This has to be a record for me, probably. Anyways. Thanks everyone for your reviews! Special shout out to Sonic77 (guest), who showed up after a loooong fanfiction hiatus. Sonic77 was the first ever person to give me a review, so he has a bit of a special place in my heart and I'm glad to see him back. Not to discourage any of my other lovely readers, I like all of you! (In an author-y sort of way.)

Disclaimer: Axe, Sin, and Ryan as well as most of the OCs are all mine. Everything else is someone else's. Not so hard to understand, eh?

* * *

The First Dungeon

Chapter 2

"Mmmmmm."

I twitched at the sound and blinked in confusion until I remembered where I was. I shifted so I was on my right side and saw that it was Axe that had hummed.

I took a closer look and was surprised that I could see so well in the low lighting. The crystals that would normally light up the room were giving off the tiniest glow and the only other light was a thin line that peeked out from under the door. I heard Sin breathing slowly to my right and saw that both of my roommate-er, Guildmates were still asleep.

Seeing as I didn't have a watch on me, or any clock nearby to tell the time, I wasn't sure what time it was. Being underground made it impossible to peek out of a window to guess what time it was.

Considering I had only woken up at about midday the day before, and had been asleep for maybe two days, I wasn't exactly tired. I tried falling back asleep but couldn't manage it. A first, for me.

Finding myself bored, I sat up with my back against the wall. I froze when the lights in the room began to brighten and internally cursed when I realized that they were basically motion sensors. Thinking back, the room had lit up as Sin walking in the night before. I hadn't seen her flip a switch or anything, so motion sensors was my only other option that I saw.

I prayed that my lack of movement would cause them to darken and was surprised when they stopped glowing immediately.

"Mind reading crystals. Lovely," I whispered under my breath, making sure not to wake the others. I had wanted them to go out, and they went out. They had read my bloody mind. Or at least my request. Maybe it was a fluke?

To test it, I waved my arm. As expected, they began to brighten. I purposely desired them to darken and they did.

"Huh?" I jumped when Sin let out that sound and the lights brightened accordingly.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned before letting out a bleary, "Mornin'."

"Morning, Sin. Is it about time to wake up?"

"Eh, we might as well." She stood and stretched, which lit the room up to its full brightness. I stood and stretched as well, working the kinks out of my body from staying still for so long.

"Wake up," Sin said to Axe in a bored tone, poking him with her toe once.

"I tried. Grab a leg."

"What?" She grabbed Axe's ankle and held the other out to me. I grabbed it, for lack of any other reaction, and helped her drag his limp body out into the hall.

"Why are we dragging him?" I asked after a few meters.

"He'll wake up before we get to the stairs." Even as she said this, We approached the stairs and I felt him start to stir.

She stopped and dropped his ankle right before the stairs, so I mimicked her. I heard him inhale deeply once, then declared, "Stewed Cheri berries and sliced apples with a sprinkling of heal seeds on top."

He then jumped up and began walking up the stairs like he hadn't just been drug there, asleep the whole time. I sniffed and tried to catch a hint of what he had described because it sounded like it smelled nice.

Nothing.

"Don't bother. Axe has one of the keenest noses in Ivycross. At least when it comes to food and other edibles," Sin said over her shoulder.

I caught up with them and they led the way up to the second sub level. There were two passageways on that landing.

"Left goes to the medical area while right-"

"Leads to the **best** area in the Guild," Axe interrupted her while picking up his pace.

I didn't see it, but I could feel Sin rolling her eyes. She didn't go any faster, so I moved next to her.

"I feel as though the best way to get him to fight would probably be to throw an apple at an opponent and tell him it's our last."

"And that's why we split the supplies," Axe retorted from ahead. "She tried it, once. _Only_ once."

Sin acquired a pained look and I got the idea that there was a story behind it.

I didn't ask because Axe increased his pace once again and I noticed a low thrum of sound from ahead. We entered an area with about twenty long tables set out all around. It reminded me, bizarrely, of my high school's lunchroom. A large variety of Pokemon sat at the tables, eating and talking to their neighbors. I noticed that there was some canine Pokemon digging into some meat and made a note to get my hand on a steak sometime soon. Berries are good and all, but I was born a carnivore and wasn't about to change that. My digestive system could _deal_ _with_ **_it!_**

"This way," Sin muttered to me and I followed her over to an area that only added to the lunchroom vibe.

"Here you are," a plate was thrust in my paws by a frowning Mankey. She was looking at a retreating Axe, so I'm pretty sure she wasn't annoyed at me specifically.

I followed Axe and Sin to an empty area at a table and we ate in relative silence. I learned from the meal the night before to eat quickly and try my hardest to finish soon after Axe because finishing before him was only possible if you had the ability to suck up food like a vacuum. Axe was close, but he still had to chew and breath once in awhile.

I noticed a few glances over in our direction and mostly ignored them. I was the 'new guy' in the Guild. No one knew me and had no idea of where I had come from or who I really was.

Then again, I didn't know anyone myself. I had no idea just what kind of missions the Ivycross Guild usually took. For all I knew at the time, I could have just signed up with a high-class assassination Guild. Axe really didn't look like a cold blooded killer, but who knew what lay beyond those eyes-

"Why are you staring at me?" I blinked and realized that I had, inadvertently, been staring at him. When I zone out, I zone out _hard_ and my mind wanders off into tangents. Apparently I hadn't lost my Attention Deficit Disorder with my new body. Too bad.

"Sorry. I was thinking about something and zoned out." The Treecko just shrugged it off and stood with his plate. I finished a little after him, about the same time as Sin, and they left with me in tow.

We went back to our room to grab our three backpacks and went to the first level. A board was situated to the right of the entrance to the Guild and was adorned with papers.

There were a few Pokemon looking at the board, so Sin explained it to me as we waited back a bit.

"The missions on that board go from rank E to rank S. Any higher and you have to go to the Guild Leader's room and look at the board in there." I remembered seeing the board the night before and paying it no attention.

"What about that one?" A team of two tough-looking, in my opinion, Pokemon looked at a board that had a bunch of posters that resembled mugshots on it.

"That's the bounty board. Those are missions where you go and find a stolen item, knock out a thief, and/or bring in someone who's wanted for some reason. They usually aren't below rank B."

"Why don't we try one of them?" I'm not sure why I said it. Thinking back on it, it would have been smarter to start off with a delivery or simple rescue mission. But the words had left my lips and I wasn't going to take them back.

Axe glanced at Sin with a questioning look, like he was delegating the decision to her. She took an evaluating look at me and asked, "Are you sure?"

 _No_. "Yeah."

"Then let's look for a low rank with a nice reward."

"Reward?" I asked as we moved to the left of the Guild entrance.

"Yes, a reward. The Guild doesn't exactly do this out of the goodness of our hearts," Sin says in a sarcastic tone.

I held up my paws in a surrendering manner. "Stupid question. Better one: what kind of rewards are offered?"

"All different kinds. Bounties typically offer a little better stuff than something of the same rank that's safer for obvious reasons." I nodded along with Sin's explanation. It made sense, seeing as hunting someone down would be more dangerous.

The two other Pokemon moved out of our way. One, a Charmeleon, gave a toothy grin and some flames flickered from behind his teeth. I saw how tough the fire type looked and felt doubt begin to appear. Why did I run my mouth? Maybe it wasn't too late to move over to the other-

"Found one."

 _Son of a_ -wait, maybe the reward isn't very g-

"And it's got a good reward. Score!"

 **Fuuuuuu-**

"What do you think?" The paper was pushed up in my face and my internal cursing was interrupted once more. The paper didn't have the picture of a Pokemon like most of the others. Instead, it looked to be a hand(paw?)-drawn picture of a necklace of some sort. There were a few details written to the side about the necklace and the reward was at the bottom.

"6,700 Pokè?" I wasn't sure how close the 'Pokè' was to the dollar, but 6,700 had to be a somewhat decent amount.

"670 Pokè, actually. Since we live in the Guild and they trained us and all, they take most of the monetary parts of rewards while we keep the items rewarded. Notice those," Axe pointed at a plus sign and several question marks that were next to the 6,700 Pokè.

"Those mean that there are other things that will go along with the money. Some missions advertise items rather than the money-"

"Will you hurry up?"

We scooted out of the way of a group of four large bear-like Pokemon, Ursaring, I think.

"So do you want to take it or not?" Sin asked me after we moved.

"It looks simple enough, let's try it." It didn't look like it would be too dangerous and it had a nice sum of cash as a reward. Call me greedy, but I really wanted to begin collecting assets. Nothing made me more uncomfortable than when I was somewhere and didn't have some method of purchasing stuff. Never mind the fact that I hardly ever actually bought stuff. Just the ability to do so put my mind at ease.

I only realized it after we had informed Tock that we accepted the mission and Axe was handing me some stuff that I was really uncomfortable with how little I had to bring to the table. Axe and Sin had taken some stuff out of their packs to divide up the load a bit more and it made me realize that I had nothing to offer.

The realization had me grip the strap hard enough to make it creak and I scowled. The Guild Leader had essentially put me, a random guy with nothing much to offer, on their team without discussing it with them. Now they were sharing supplies with me and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to keep up with them.

I wasn't even angry at anyone, more like angry at myself for their sakes.

"You alright?" Axe was giving me a look, so I dropped my scowl for a sheepish look and relaxed my paw.

"Just nervous, I guess," I lied. Well, sort of lied. I was more angry at myself for having nothing to offer than nervous for the upcoming mission.

"Chances are the client just dropped the necklace and thinks that someone stole it. At least she has an idea of where she lost it. Some clients literally say, 'It's somewhere in the area, I know it!'"

Axe snorted at Sin's words and picked up his pack.

"Let's get going. I want to be back in time for supper!"

* * *

"So we just get on this thing here," I point at a large sheet of metal that sat on the ground, "and you'll teleport us to where we need to go?"

"Yes. Now get on."

"This world has the strangest rules," I muttered very quietly and got on the sheet of metal. Andy the Abra, yes that's his name and he will punch you if you laugh, waited until we had all got on before he stepped up on it himself.

The world constricted and seemed to fold in on itself for a moment before returning to normal, well, normal in another place.

" **Hurk!** " Axe stumbled a few meters away and held his stomach while groaning piteously. Sin grimaced a bit, but otherwise seemed unaffected.

"What's wrong with him?" I felt the tiniest bit nauseous, but nothing near as bad as what Axe seemed to be feeling.

"Teleportation tends to upset the stomachs of most Pokemon. Psychic types are one of the few that are almost always totally unaffected. Dark types typically are better off than most as well. Others have to get used to it by teleporting many times," Andy explained from his spot on the metal sheet. He was laying down like he was ready for a long nap.

"You should be worse off than dry heaver over there considering that you are weak to psychic type attacks. You teleport often?"

I shook my head and answered honestly. "First time ever teleporting, I believe."

"Hey, Ryan," Sin caught my attention and waved me over.

"Yeah?"

"I think you've got the Heal seeds. Pull one out for Axe and another for-how do you feel?"

I opened up one of the pockets that I remembered Axe putting some seeds in before and answered as I dug in it.

"I don't really feel much. Guess it really doesn't mess with me too much. Here," I passed her what I prayed was a heal seed. The seed itself was a yellow color with thin tan lines that ran from the point to the middle of the rounded end. It was a teardrop shape and the rounded end was about the same size as a golf ball.

She took it to Axe, so I must have picked correctly.

Axe accepted the seed and immediately bit into the fatter end. He began looking better after a minute and seemed fine once he was done.

"The rounded end is what heals status problems," Andy spouted off randomly.

"What?"

He shifted uncomfortably and said, "My bad. I just say stuff sometimes, like random facts out out of the blue. It's a weird habit of mine."

I nodded in understanding. It was sort of like me zoning out. Was Andy ADD?

"What about the rest of the seed?"

"It's just nutritious and tastes good."

"Ah." I noticed that Axe had put his backpack on, so I grabbed mine and went to the two of them.

"You alright?" I asked the Treecko.

"I'm fine. Maybe tomorrow we can take a mission closer to the Guild and just walk?"

"Yeah, sure," Sin agreed and I nodded along.

"So what now?" I asked.

"We go there," Sin pointed a claw toward a large forested area that we had appeared a good ways away from. We had appeared in an area that was mostly dirt and bare rock. I noticed that the forest was the only greenery that I could see and wondered how it managed to survive in such a barren area.

"We find the entrance to the Mystery Dungeon and head to floor seven. The client thinks she lost the item on that floor, so that's where we'll begin."

I nodded along and decided on a seemingly safe question

"Why are they called Mystery Dungeons? I've never heard an explanation for that." Technically, I had never heard of a Mystery Dungeon before that point, but whatever.

Axe explained as we began walking to the forested area. He wobbled a little, but got better as he munched on the Heal seed.

"The Mystery Dungeons appeared a long time ago. They are called that because that, inside the Dungeons, it is always changing. People try to map out floors, trying to find a pattern or reasoning behind the floors changing, but no one has ever managed to figure it out completely."

Sin took over at that point.

"Some things do stay the same, though. Like this Dungeon only has twelve floors. The final floor is always the same room and we always leave from it. Other, bigger, Dungeons usually have an area in the middle that's considered a 'safe' area. Sometimes more than one if it's really big."

"How do you know how big a Dungeon is if you've never visited it?" I certainly wouldn't want to go somewhere unprepared.

"We can usually ask more experienced members for some information or we can look at the Dungeon Register that sits in Tock's office. It has some information on every known Dungeon along with warnings and such that can help out anyone going in."

"How often are new Mystery Dungeons discovered?"

"Pretty often. Mystery Dungeons pop up in the most random places at the most random times. They are usually much bigger on the inside. Take Tiny Forest right there," Sin nodded at the newly named forested area in front of us. "How big would you say that is?"

I looked at the area we were getting closer to and gave a guess.

"Five kilometers wide?"

"Pfft. Each floor is probably two and a half kilometers."

I did the math and took another look at the Dungeon.

"You are saying that the Dungeon ahead of us is about thirty kilometers wide?"

"No," Axe retorted. "We're saying that each floor is equivalent to about two and a half kilometers. That equals around thirty kilometers put all together, but we only have to search floor seven."

"But that can't possibly-"

"Enough," Sin snapped at us. "Let's just get in there and he'll understand then."

We stopped talking and instead walked along the perimeter of the forest looking for something. A path in?

"There," Axe pointed and I followed his finger. It wasn't hard to mistake what he meant.

"Stairs? What the hell are stairs doing in a Mystery Dungeon?"

"That's one of the-well, mysteries about Mystery Dungeons. To progress to the next floor, you have to find the stairs. Like most other things, no one knows why. Let's go."

It bothered me that the stairs, which were made of fine wood and looked brand-spanking new, seemed to lead into a normal forest when the stairs indicated that it was anything but. The rails, yes it had rails, were smooth and unblemished. I was tempted to leave a scratch, just to see if it would be there once we left the Dungeon.

"Here," a bunched up cloth was thrown to me and I caught it with a questioning look.

"Put it on," Sin commands. "It's a Detect band and will help you dodge easier." She was wrapping a similar looking cloth with swirls decorating it around her large red ear. Axe had already tied two red cloths, each with slightly different patterns, around each bicep.

Having decided to go along with the world's bizarre logic by then, I tied the band around my hips like a belt. It was green and had faint swirling patterns. I tried to examine it, to see if it seemed outwardly special, and found it hard to keep my eyes on it. The harder I focused on the cloth, the more my eyes slid off of the surface.

I stumbled when I got to the end of the stairs, so focused on trying to simply look at the cloth that I wasn't expecting the lack of step.

"This is the first floor. Keep an eye out for the stairs and be careful of traps," Sin warned me.

We were in a clearing that was surrounded by incredibly thick foliage. The clearing held grass, but nothing else of interest aside from the stairs. Speaking of them.

"Umm, _guys_!" I called to them in a slight panic when I saw vines covering the way we had just come. The vines had sprung from nowhere and had proceeded to make a very capable barrier.

"That is what happens when you enter a Mystery Dungeon. Unless someone is coming up right behind you, then the path seals itself off. We've never tried it, but we're told that trying to get rid of the barrier only ends badly." I was tempted to ask what he meant, but decided to just get away from the still quivering vines instead. There was only a single exit to the clearing and Axe led the way with me taking the middle and Sin bringing up the back.

The path through the forest itself wasn't that impressive. The paths were only wide enough to allow one of us to be in front at any time. The paths were also bizarrely clear of things poking out from the thick, impassable undergrowth that lay on both sides of the path.

"There's a Ledyba up ahead. Sin?"

"I've got it." She past me in front of Axe. The ladybug Pokemon had noticed us and was flying towards Sin at high speeds. Sin began moving forward at a walk with her claws held out a little from her sides. She it seemed like a well practiced movement and I paid close attention.

When the bug type got close enough, Sin suddenly put on a large burst of speed and jump-kicked the low-flying Ledyba back. Sin hardly touched the ground before her claws were tearing into the other Pokemon. The lightning fast swipes left deep gashes in the Ledyba's body and it was forced back by the continuous onslaught, unable to fight back properly. In no time, it lay on the ground and we were walking by it. It was still alive, but not in very good condition. It would take awhile to heal, so it wouldn't be bothering us any time soon.

"Why did it just attack us out of the blue?" I had noticed that it hadn't let out any words during the whole encounter. It had just glared and let out cries of pain when it was hurt. It acted, for lack of a better term, wild.

"Most Pokemon that live in Mystery Dungeons are typically uncivilized. Some aren't, though. You remember the Charmeleon from the Guild earlier? He came from a-hold it!" Sin's last word came out as a low hiss and I froze.

"Monster house ahead. Backtrack!" Axe nodded and tugged on my arm as he turned around and quickly began moving back the way we came.

I held off my questions until Sin let out a, "I think we're okay." We slowed down then and turned down a path we had went past the first time.

"Monster house?" I finally asked.

"It refers to a room or area that a lot of Dungeon Pokemon have gathered. Usually they hold some good loot, but the large numbers have a good chance of overpowering you if you're not careful."

"What happens if I get taken down?"

Axe, who was in front again, looked back at me with a confused look and I panicked for a moment.

"The Reviver seed in your bag should patch you up, good as new. With all the questions you've been asking, it's almost like you've never been in a Mystery Dungeon before?"

I thought quickly and said, "My parents always kept us away from Dungeons and I've only visited a few short ones when I was younger."

"'Us?'"

"My little sister. She's a Riolu as well." I did have a little sister back home. She wasn't a Riolu, obviously. I had hardly thought of her, or much of anything from my world, ever since I woke up. My parents, hardly. My friends, the few I had, nada.

I hadn't even thought of thinking about home until that point!

Was it rude of me hardly even think of people I had known my whole life, those who raised me, despite them probably being worried for me? I had only been there for a little while, yeah, but-

"Seed!"

Seed? I felt Sin copy Axe in ducking to the side of the path, leaving me standing there wide open for the seed to slam into me.

I tensed at the last second and was surprised when it didn't hurt upon impact. It just shattered on hitting me one second and changed my surroundings the next.

...wait.

"Axe? Sin?" I called out from the clearing that had sprung up around me in the last few seconds. I was met with the natural sounds of the forest and, absurdly, that caused me to shiver. I looked around and took a step back when I found the very stairs that we were looking for in front of me.

"Did a seed take me to the stairs?" I muttered to myself.

There were a few seconds where I tried to reason out how it could have brought me there before I shouted, " **THIS MAKES NO BLOODY SENSE!** " I vented some frustration that had accumulated.

A growl had me turn around again and I found eyes peering through a white skull staring into my own.

I held up my paws in a non-threatening gesture while stepping back, to the side of the stairs.

"I'm not looking to-woah now!" I had to dodge the bone that the Marowak had swung at my head mid-sentence. I, running on autopilot thanks to surprise and dear, took the opening the Marowak had left with his swing and slammed my foot into his midsection.

"I don't suppose we can talk this out?"

The Marowak let out an angry bark and charged with his club held high. I spent the next few seconds dodging the bone-weapon and trying to remember which moves Riolu could use.

But- _swish_ -with all the- _Oh that was close_ -distractions...

"Enough!" Instead of dodging the next blow, I held my arms out and blocked the next strike with the bony domes situated on the back of my paws. I then grabbed the weapon and snatched it towards me. I expected the Marowak to just let it go, but I kicked him in the stomach and forced him to do so when he didn't originally.

Taking the initiative, I turned the bone around in my paws so that I held the end with the spike and slammed the partially rounded down on the Marowak's head, putting a large crack in the skull and sending him to the ground.

He twitched and started to get up, so I hit it with the bone club once again.

It took six more hits before it finally passed out from the head trauma. I was breathing hard and collapsed against the stairs to catch it. While keeping the Marowak in my peripherals, I took a good look at the club that was still in my paw. My brow furrowed and I asked, "You're supposed to have a different kind of club. No spike on the end."

Thankfully, the Marowak did not respond, unconscious as it was.

" _Ryan!?_ "

I looked up at the sound of my name and pushed myself to my feet. It was Axe, but he wasn't in the clearing.

"I'm over here!" I yelled in the direction that I heard my name from. "I found the stairs!" I added after a moment.

"Good job. Just sit tight and we'll be over there!" Sin yelled.

So I sat back on the stairs and waited. A few minutes, plus the sound of combat, later and they strolled into the clearing looking fine. I had recovered my breath and stood.

"Why didn't you just climb the stairs?" Axe's annoyed tone caught me off guard.

"We would have been transported to you if you had touched the fourth step," Sin explained with a sigh.

 _WHAT KIND OF LOGIC IS THAT!?_ Does this world try to not make sense on _purpose_?

"Sorry. But why did that seed teleport me to the stairs?"

"You got lucky. Warp seeds teleport you to a random place on the Dungeon floor if they manage to break when they hit you or you eat them. It was pure luck that you landed in the room with the stairs. What happened to him?" Sin gestured at the Marowak with a questioning look.

With the straightest face ever mustered, I held up the club and said, "He was _boned_ the moment I got a hold of this."

There was a moment where the world seemed to pause-then it unfroze with my two teammates groaning.

"Just climb the stairs and never make that joke again." Axe moved past me and shook his head in disappointment while Sin smacked me in the head as she went by.

So worth it.

The next few floors were simple. We fought a few Pokemon and found Pokè as well as various types of berries laying around as we sought the stairs. I silently questioned why all the stuff was simply laying around, but didn't voice it. I just chalked it up to even more of this world's bullcrap rules.

I was still peeved about a seed having the power to teleport someone.

Finally, we arrived at floor seven and we found ourselves looking down at the Pokemon we had just beat down with relative ease. Seriously, Axe had shot a Bullet Seed at it and I hit it with my new bone-weapon and it went down quickly.

Axe slipped the necklace that hung around the Fearow's long neck off and passed it to Sin.

"This is the item. This guy probably found it laying around, and I can't remember seeing his face on any wanted posters, so let's get out of here."

They set their bags on the ground and grabbed their Explorer badges out. I quickly did the same and waited for their example.

"Just hold your badge and tell it that you're ready to go. Like this." She turned the green circle in the middle of the front of the badge towards herself and said, "Sin, ready for extract."

The badge flashed once before Sin vanished with her bag and the necklace as well.

"You go next," Axe suggested and I held the badge, mine had a pink middle (to my annoyance), towards me.

"Uh, Ryan, ready for extract?" I couldn't help but flinch when it blinked the one time.

"Good, it worked," Sin said from her position next to Andy the Abra. She had the grimace on her face and I moved away from where I was standing in time to not be thrown up on by a certain Treecko. In a move that I was certain would become practiced in time, I grabbed a Heal seed and put it in his paw.

"The badges work by having Andy teleport us out of there on request?" I aimed the question at Sin, but it was Andy that replied.

"Yeah. They also tell me, or whoever teleported you here, if you get knocked out so I can extract you asap."

"Let's go," Axe groaned and flopped down onto the sheet of metal. "I'm going to have to go through this again, so let's just go now."

Andy hesitated until Sin told him, "Just go."

Despite her expressionless tone, her face watched a now shivering Treecko with some worry.

Andy lifted his arms and the world did its folding routine. Axe also folded and let the contents of his stomach out on the ground next to the sheet of metal.

Sin went forward and rubbed his back a little and I was quietly baffled.

Why would someone keep doing that to themselves? Perusing a career that requires one to go through something that forces them to become sick to their stomach? What drove him to keep doing this, despite how miserable he seemed?

I could understand how Sin, who was only affected by it a little, could keep going. But Axe? What pushed him to keep going?

"C'mon," Sin said as she helped Axe up and assisted him in standing. I quickly stored the badge in my backpack and moved forward to help carry his other side. He was shivering a little, and still looked a little green-pun somewhat intended-so I reached back and plucked out a berry from my pack. It was an Oran berry. I remembered someone saying that they helped heal, so I held it up to his mouth and said, "Here."

He nibbled a bit on it and soon was walking again while chomping down on it.

He still shook, but we let him be since he could walk on his own. We had appeared about fifty meters behind the Guild, the same place we had left from originally, and made our way back to Tock's office.

"Axe, Sin, and Ryan back. Mission complete," Sin said while holding up the necklace. Tock looked up from what he was reading to confirm what she said.

"Very good. I will notify the client and call you when the reward is here. Lunch is still being served."

Sin set the necklace on Tock's desk and began to move out of the office.

"Ryan," Tock called out as I moved to leave. "Wait a minute."

Sin paused in the doorway and I waved her on with a smile. "I'll catch up with you later. Get the poor Pokemon some food in his stomach," I said with a grin that didn't betray the nervousness I really felt. Why did Tock calling me into his office feel the same way as the principal's office?

"How was your first exploration?" Tock asked me after motioning that I should sit in the chair that sat in front of his paperwork-leaden desk.

"It was," I sought the right word, "interesting. The first Pokemon I fought was a Marowak and I beat it with its own club," I lifted said club unnecessarily.

The Toxicroak nodded and I couldn't help but notice that the bags under his eyes seemed to have grown since I had seen him in the morning.

"The spoils go to the winner, eh?" Tock gave a small smile and continued. "I asked you to stay because I am to ask you after your first mission if you would still like to be a part of this Guild. You have seen a little of what Ivycross Guild has to offer and, from what you say, you seem to have handled yourself well."

It didn't take me very long to think about it and say, "I would like to stay." Despite the bullcrap rules that still bothered me, exploring the Dungeon and fighting other Pokemon was a fun experience and I wanted to continue doing it.

Tock smile widened a little more and he said, "Wonderful. Then here's the paperwork for the mission you just completed. Be sure to fill it out properly and have it in tomorrow." He slid forward a small stack of papers and I paled slightly.

"My old enemy," I whispered, then hissed, " ** _Paperwork_**!"

Tock rolled his eyes at my remark.

"You sound like the Guild Leader."

* * *

And there's the second chapter. A, belated, but still very Merry Christmas to everyone! And Happy Holidays to those who do not celebrate Christmas!

Thanks for the wonderful reviews. They are great encouragement *cough cough hint hint nudges tip jar forward* for me to get chapters out *points at four day difference between this chapter and the last*.

So review! It's always nice.

Question: (Yes, I'm starting this up on here.) What is your favorite Move/Item/or Pokemon to use/play as in the PMD games?


	3. There's an Eye on Me

It Shall Begin and End With Pain chap 3

I only wish I was this fast with my other stories. Then again, I am on break and not studying for the ACT. You would be very surprised at how much I want those stupid scores to come in from my most recent attempt.

So I wrote about half of this on my way back from the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Be proud of me! My tablet was at 24% when I finished this up and I'm surprised that I managed to finish it so quickly so soon after my last chapter.

I hope you enjoy how this goes. Please don't hesitate to hand out criticism, advice, etc. It does help.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. BUT RYAN IS ALL MINE, GOT IT! *Holds my Riolu away from a certain Lucario.*

"But he's adorable~!

Back, Alvis! The readers aren't supposed to see you yet!

But-

Back!

*grumbling Lucario noises*

* * *

Nothing can suppress a human's curiosity.

~Eren Jaeger (Shingeki no Kyojin)

* * *

There's an Eye on Me

Chapter 3

RYAN'S POV

The first thing I did once I left Tock's office, aside from grimace at the paperwork once again, was head back to our room. I set my pack and new weapon next to my bed and dimmed the crystals as I closed the door behind me.

"Heeeey, newbie," I jumped at the raspy voice and turned around to find myself face-to-face with a fanged ball of grinning gas. Otherwise known as a Gastly.

"Heeeey, Ghostie," I said in the same way as him with a grin while putting some distance between him and me.

The ghost dipped with a frown at my reaction and muttered, "People are getting so hard to spook these days."

I shrugged, feeling my heart rate slowing down from the jump-scare.

"Sorry. Maybe next time."

I began moving past him when he said, "Wait a moment."

I stopped and turned back to him.

"What do you want for that Cubone Club I saw you bring into your room?"

"Sorry, not for sale." As stupid as it was, I had already grown attached to the weapon. It was the very first item that I had earned and I needed it to fight.

Considering I had no idea how to fight using my own moves, the Cubone Club was off the market unless it was for a far better weapon. Or better yet, a ticket home. Plus, I really wouldn't know if I was getting a good trade or ripped off.

"Aww," Gastly groaned. "Well if you ever do want to get rid of it, just ask around and I'll get with you as soon as I can."

He phased through the wall at my answering nod and I went to the mess hall. Axe had improved somewhat and was eating. It was at a far slower pace than normal, but at least he was eating. Sin was nowhere to be found, so I grabbed my plate and sat down across the table from Axe.

"Where's Sin?"

"She already ate and went to the training hall in town."

They pointed out a large dojo-like building when they had given me a tour of the town the night before. I imagined some poor dummy getting ripped apart by Sin as I ate.

Add finished and said that he was going to go take a nap before he left. It took me a few bites before I was conscious of several eyes on me. The back of my neck prickled and, when I turned around to see, the feeling vanished. I couldn't tell if anyone was watching me, but I felt it as I ate.

I finished, put my plate where I put it before, and decided to go and visit the training hall. Arceus knows that I needed training before I got myself killed for not knowing how to fight or something equally as stupid.

I left the Guild and made my way through town to the training hall. It was a three story building that seemed to come straight out of some martial arts movie. The walls were mostly paper and the two main doors seemed to be on sliders. It had a decent sized wooden front porch that seemed well taken care of and beams that held up a balcony that extended from the second floor.

I could feel vibrations from a great many impacts through the ground and the sounds of thuds and such from others hitting other things or Pokemon.

I started to reach for the handle of the door when it was opened abruptly. A gray hand-yes hand, because it had five fingers-shot out and grabbed me before I could move back.

"Oi Sin! Your teammate is here!" The hand gripped hard and I found myself slung into the building headfirst.

I had about a second to register a presence in front of me until the impact sent the both of us sprawling.

"Ugh," I groaned and rubbed my aching skull. Who did Sin piss off and why was it being taken out on me?

"You've got a hard head," a voice complained and I opened one eye to see the one I had hit. The Machop was rubbing his middle and I silently thanked the fact that he didn't have rock hard abs or my head would hurt a lot worse.

"Don't blame me, blame the one who threw me. And Newton for his damn law regarding momentum.

"Who's Newton?" Sin asked from behind me.

"No one," I said and stood up, still rubbing my skull.

"My bad," the same voice that had met me at the door approached, "I meant to hit Sin."

"Now everything is _magically_ better," I snarked and looked at the one who threw me.

Once I saw the muscles on his arms, all four of them, I suddenly regretted my snark. I'm pretty sure a few of them were bigger than my head!

The Machamp that had thrown me laughed and put his four hands on his hip.

"Sarcastic little shit, ain't you," he grinned and turned to the Machop that I had hit with my face.

"You up for a spar?"

The Machop cracked his knuckles and I tried not to pale too much at the apparent muscles that flexed all over his small form.

"Why not? You mind, Sin?"

I looked at my Sneasel teammate with a pleading look, hoping she would be merciful and get me out of it.

"Just don't screw him up too much. You might spend most of your time sparring, but we've got missions to do."

I scowled and mentally swore revenge on her. I needed to find some berries with sticky juice, stat.

"Then get in the circle," the Machamp pointed one of his hands at a circle that had been drawn on the ground with chalk. The few others on that floor watched us as we made our way over to The Circle, as I had dubbed it in my head.

I mimicked the Machop and got in the opposite side of The Circle.

"Rules?" I asked, buying time so I could remember anything I had ever seen in martial arts movies or anything in general. A few of my friends had taken classes and I had helped them by holding pads for them to punch and kick. Maybe the few times they had missed and kicked me instead had shoved some knowledge into me?

"Nothing destructive enough to damage the floor, walls, or ceiling. The goal is to get your opponent out of the circle by whatever means necessary except for what I've already listed. Got it? Good. Go!"

I got in a 'ready' position and just as quickly abandoned it to dodge the fist that entered the space my head was occupying.

I mostly dodged and deflected with the domes of bone on the backs of my paws when I couldn't get out of his way fast enough.

I grit my teeth when my bones rattled from blocking a direct kick and I decided that I wasn't going to hold out if I simply blocked and danced around his attacks.

So, when I blocked the next kick, I took the opening and moved in for a jab at his throat. Apparently he didn't need both feet planted on the ground to send his other foot into the bottom of my jaw. The force behind it sent me a meter up into the air and two or three meters away from the outside edge of The Circle.

There was some applause and I saw a few others congratulating the Machop on his victory. I, on the other hand, was rubbing the bottom of my jaw with a whine.

"You lasted longer than I expected," Sin extended her paw and helped me to my feet.

"Thanks. I so do love getting kicked across the room," I said flippantly, wondering how long it would take for my jaw to stop buzzing.

"Why didn't you bring your club?"

"I didn't really think about it. Do other Pokemon use weapons often? You know, aside from seeds and such."

She didn't answer so much as roll her eyes and wave for me to follow her. I caught the eyes of the Machop I fought and gave him a thumbs up with a smile before I followed Sin. I didn't want to be rude and leave before acknowledging his victory. Poor sportsman, I am not. Not unless someone blatantly cheats.

If someone cheats, I destroy them. Or just leave. I _loath_ cheaters.

Sin led me down some stairs while saying, "Pokemon can practice their throwing-based weaponry or lower powered long range attacks down here." The room that the stairs deposited us in made me wonder if the town of Ivycross ever worried about their town becoming one massive sinkhole at some point. Sure, the giant stone pillars did seem to be distributed liberally and well protected by their own walls, but I had my doubts.

"Some even practice dodging or learning how to counteract certain long-range moves and such down here. Look," she pointed at an Ambipom throwing a constellation of stars at a figure that sent out an explosive burst of flame to stop the flow of sparkling golden stars.

"Swift doesn't miss, so you have to shove something in its way or get hit. The explosive force from a Blast seed is useful for destroying the first few. As you saw, it sort of dominoes from there on its own."

I gave a quiet mental scream at the thought that eating a simple seed would cause such destructive power. What would happen if someone didn't open their mouths after eating it?

The mental image I got from that involved a _lot_ of blood.

Sin went on to show me something akin to a firing range. But switch out the guns with spikes made up of different materials, rocks that burst in a shrapnel-like fashion on impact, and Pokemon themselves blasting off attacks at dummies that were slowly mowed down over time.

It made me wonder how a squad of elite soldiers armed with modern weaponry would fare against the same number of elite Pokemon on the field of battle. Something told me that, unless the soldiers had the element of surprise or an obvious advantage, then they stood a good chance of getting wiped out.

"And this is the area you'll be interested in." She drew my attention to a large area that had a great many Pokemon wielding weapons of all shapes and sizes. A great many of the weapons were blunt, club-like weapons like what I had and were made of simple materials like wood and stone. I saw the occasional bone-based weapon, both bladed and blunt. But metal weapons were the most rare. The few I saw were almost always sharp looking. I saw one Pokemon wielding daggers that had blades that looked as though they were modeled after feathers.

"I retract my earlier question," I murmured with slightly wide eyes.

"I thought so. C'mon. I'll introduce you to the one in charge of this area."

Sin led me along the outskirts of the area and I finally saw a Pokemon that I didn't automatically recognize. Whatever it was, it was definitely suited for teaching people about weapons. Considering it was almost 30% weaponry on its own, I couldn't think of many other species that would be better at teaching weapons handling than what I saw. The Pokemon's body was naturally armored, from what I could tell, and it had five blades not counting the two feet. (I wasn't sure if they were sharp enough to be called blades.)

Before we got too close, I asked, "What kind of Pokemon is that?"

"He's a Bisharp and his name is Xion. He came from some place far away a long time ago and is now a big member of Ivycross Guild. He mostly teaches nowadays, but he's known to take on three or four star missions all on his own now and again."

We got close enough that Xion finally turned to us and nodded to Sin before speaking.

"I see you've brought your new teammate." How does everyone know about me already!? Xion's voice sounded as though it came from inside a suit of armor and was a deep masculine tone that bore little humor.

"Right. Then you've probably heard about his new weapon, right?"

My eye began twitching when he nodded in affirmation. I had got back from the mission less than two ours prior. Was there someone shadowing me with a radio, telling the whole Guild my every action?

"Where is your new weapon?" And suddenly, the bladed Pokemon's eyes were on me.

"I-I didn't know that many Pokemon used other weapons. Aside from the usual one's and natural parts, of course," I said nervously. It was hard not to be nervous when the one you were talking to could probably split you in half with a backhand. Those blades gleamed and I was reminded of Sin's claws. Another person to avoid annoying was promptly added to my list.

Add on the fact that the guy was well-known for taking on missions, that I assume are very difficult in rank from how Sin voiced them, and I was going to be stepping lightly around Xion.

"Bring it and I will see what you can learn."

He turned away from us to instead observe the throng of Pokemon exchanging blades and clubs. Sin tugged my arm and I followed her away.

"He seems like he would be fun at parties," I drolled once we exited the training hall. I watched another Pokemon get slung out of the ring by the same Machop I sparred and I gave it a sympathetic look.

Sin punched me in the arm for the comment and I whined. My body still ached, though it was fading somewhat.

"Axe should be recovered enough for a quick mission." I copied Sin as she glanced up at the sun. It was a little past the middle of the sky, so I guessed it was somewhere around one o'clock. The mission with the necklace had taken about four hours and it had been about two more since we had gotten back. Considering the early hour we had got up, one o'clock sounded about right.

* * *

We went back to the Guild, slapped our teammate awake, and went out on a supply gathering mission for the Guild. It was a simple task and there was hardly any combat to speak of. Because I was the newest member, and the lowest rank because of it, I had the task of carrying the bags while Sin and Axe defended me from the occasional wild Dungeon Pokemon.

Once I asked, they told me why my Ivycross badge had a pink middle and theirs were green. They were Bronze ranking members while I had the starting rank: Normal rank.

"You rank up by either gathering enough explorer points, which you get by completing missions, or you do something praiseworthy enough that the Guild Leader or Tock will give an early promotion. I haven't seen anyone do that while I've been in the Guild." Seeing as it was Sin speaking, it would have been stupid to ask if Axe had seen anyone.

We completed that mission and went back to the Guild to collect a sum of Pokè that we blew going out to eat to celebrate my first day as an explorer of Ivycross Guild. Axe insisted.

The client showed up the next day and collected their necklace when we were at the training hall. The ? items were just some berries and a heal seed, which was put in my bag. Axe and Sin complained, in private, about how a C rank should have given out better reward items, but I was fine with it.

Just earning the 224 Pokè-as we had split it three ways and they gave me the one extra bit-had me feeling giddy. I had some cash. I had a weapon to defend myself with. Hell, I was even starting to understand the world's idiotic logic. There were still moments where I would ask questions that would earn me weird looks, but those became less often as time passed.

Three or four days went by with a kind of routine: wake up, drag Axe to the stairway, eat breakfast, pick a mission (usually close by), sometimes two missions, eat lunch, go train at the training hall for awhile, and finally return to the Guild about half an hour before curfew and hit the hay. Rinse and repeat.

It two days after our first mission that I asked about something that I had noticed around the Guild now and again.

"Do you guys have a team name?"

Axe finished off an irate bird Pokemon that had been pestering us for awhile before turning to me.

"People usually only name their teams after all, or most of, their members get to Silver or Gold rank. It would look bad for the Guild of some Normal ranks went around calling themselves 'Team Infinity' or 'Team Best of All' or something snotty like that without doing much to earn it. There's also the fact that teams don't always stick together. Some members leave the Guild or join other teams for one reason or another. Sin was part of a group with two others. One of them quit. The other, I'm not sure what happened to him. But we do need to go find Sin."

Sin had gotten hit with a Warp seed and we were in the process of looking for her, and the stairs, when we were suddenly next to them. Sin had her foot resting on the fourth step.

It was about by that point that I gave up trying to understand that world logically. I didn't give up totally, but I did for the most part.

* * *

It was a full week after I had joined the Guild. I spent most of my free time at the training hall, learning how to wield my bone club more effectively. There were several different offers made to trade or buy it off of me, but I refused all of them.

I had bonded with that stupid bone. Gave it a name. Ben. Ben the bone club. Admittedly I was suffering from the effects of a Confuse Ray a Zubat had hit me with, plus a mild concussion, plus a seed that made me hallucinate just a bit, when I named it Ben. But Axe insisted that, because I had named it, I should stick with it. Sin just rolled her eyes any time the name came up.

I spent a great deal of time carrying it around, so I finally used a bit of my earned exploration Pokè on a sling for it. The sling was made to hold the bottom half of the Cubone bone in the middle of my back so the rest of it, the rounded part, stuck up a little past my right shoulder.

Honestly, I found it pretty fun to draw. Even if learning how to sheath it properly got me stabbed a great many times. I figured out that the pointy end of it was great for jabbing at opponents to get them to back up while I turned it around so it could be used as a club. I tried slashing it a few times, but it only caused shallow cuts. Ben is best used as a clubbing weapon.

I actually personalized Ben a little by etching little things into the handle. My name. The names of my parents and sister. A few symbols from home. I felt giddy when I cut the Deathly Hallows symbol in the bulkier end. I was sad after when I realized that no one would ever actually recognize the symbol for what it was.

Speaking of home. I had, very carefully, been looking for signs of humanity. Apparently, they are creatures of legend and myth. No one had seen or heard about humans and I had gotten that much information from an elderly Torkoal at some hot springs we visited. I played it off as hearing the term somewhere when he inquired why I was asking.

Unless the old fellow had gone senile and completely forgot about a species, not so difficult considering all the different kinds of Pokemon there are, humans weren't around. I asked a few others, Axe and Sin included, before finally giving up. Humans either never existed in that world outside of stories or they lived somewhere that is not well connected to the rest of the planet.

In other news, I earned the Bronze ranking. Most teams take missions once or twice a week. Our mission-a-day habit was seen as productive by most. Most teams at our level spend their time training and getting stronger while only picking up the pace once they can do bigger missions.

Our team just worked a bit harder, I suppose. I didn't even realize it until I saw how other teams seemed to not leave Ivycross for days. I could keep up without too much trouble, so I found no reason to complain. We took breaks when anyone was injured or just wanted to do something else.

On one of those break days, which were the few occasions that our team split up and went our separate ways to do our own things, I learned that Sin enjoyed carving. I saw the small figurines next to her bed and saw that they appeared to be different Pokemon.

I tried to get a closer look at one when we were getting ready for bed and she glared at me. I backed off and admired the care put in them from a distance. She didn't even let Axe lay a finger on them.

Axe...I'm not sure what Axe does on his free days. We let him sleep in on one of them and when I came back, to grab Ben after breakfast, he wasn't there. I asked Sin, while sparring, and she said it was none of my business. It was accentuated by a fist in my gut, so I didn't ask any further. His business was his own and Sin's punches hurt.

Despite not openly asking, I noticed a pattern. On our days off, Axe would sleep in and be gone each time I came to get Ben.

I asked around, when the two of them weren't nearby, and the few others I managed to start a conversation with and ask didn't have any idea. On the bright side, I got to know a few others in the Guild!

One was a sweet female Vulpix named Lilian, who demanded to be called Lilly or "I swear I'll burn your tail into nothing more than a nub!" Needless to say, she could turn mean when it suited her. Her other teammate happened to be a Riolu!

The reason I actually met Lilian-excuse me, Lilly, was because she tackled me to the ground when I was going around a corner. She began to yell at me about something regarding spoiled berries when another Riolu came about the same corner with a surprised look. He looked about the same as me, aside from the panicked look, so I could understand the confusion.

There was an awkward pause when she realized that I, in fact, was not the Riolu in question. She apologized profusely while the other Riolu ran. Ken, the Riolu, found me later and thanked me for distracting her while he escaped.

He was cut short by Lilly, who rounded another corner-so many freaking corners-and screamed for Ken to "get your sorry furry arse back here before I burn it extra crispy!"

Man that Riolu can run. I made a note to challenge him to a race.

If he survived his teammate, of course.

* * *

It was three weeks after I had joined. The world still hadn't begun to make much sense, but I was doing well. I had enough Pokè to open a bank account in Ivycross. It was run by a creepy Dunknoir with a penchant for chuckling in a dark and somewhat menacing manner, but he had a good reputation for keeping cash safe so I was fine with it. I also opened a Guild storage unit that became available to me upon reaching Bronze rank. I put some items that I didn't feel like selling or that I couldn't see myself using in any upcoming missions.

I always kept a few spare Detect bands in there. I was an agile little guy, but the difference of having on a Detect band and not having one on was shown by the bruises and cuts I earned while exploring. Items also needed replacing once in a while as the explorer lifestyle caused much wear and tear.

A little note. We found out that, apparently, covering oneself with Detect bands so that nothing showed except one's eyes does not make one impossible to hit. We're not even sure if the effects piled on one another, cancelled each other, or did anything at all. All I know is that I will not be walking right into another monster house with that trick in mind ever again.

But back to the topic at hand. It was two months after I had joined. In that time, I had found no real evidence that humanity ever really existed, aside for what existed in my own mind. The few ideas I had come up with for returning home were improbable at best and existed only in theory. And I had begun to carve out a place for myself in the Guild. It was easy to get along with those I knew and, despite my nature of keeping to myself and not making much effort to expand my group of friends, I had a nice number of people whom I would call friend.

So, in short, I had begun to doubt. Thoughts, however small, began to enter my head that my memories were somehow false. That my life before I woke up in the woods was just some fantasy that I had. That I had, for one reason or another, thought up an entirely different existence than the one I lived.

The main thing that kept me from fully accepting this was the fact that I simply didn't want to let go.

Even if they were false. Even if they kept me from being happy by holding onto the hope of returning. They were too precious for me to just give up.

Add on the fact that I had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Pokemon that there was no chance of me ever having met, Legendaries and rare Pokemon, and I had no idea how I would know about any of them in such detail. Not unless I had lived another life.

So I didn't give up hope that I would get back home. I kept thinking up ways, however unlikely their odds, and fishing for knowledge that would help. I asked about Pokemon that could screw around with space, aside from typical psychic types; about Pokemon known to have exceptionally special or strange abilities; and even old legends about Pokemon from other worlds. I found out from asking about the last one that there are, in fact, alien conspiracy theorists among Pokemon.

Nice guy. Kinda droned on, but nice.

* * *

"You coming, Ryan?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you outside," I was struggling with Ben's sling and my teammates left our room without me. I finally got it to fit right, and left after turning the crystals 'off.' I knew that they went off on their own, but the habit was ingrained into me from my old world. I still hadn't seen Sin or Axe force the lights to dim, so I avoided doing it around them. My two months in the world had been mostly gathering information and assets while making sure not to draw too much attention to myself.

That basically changed with a single cranky fire type.

"Outta my way, Mini-A." The owner of the voice paused in his way past me to take a second look.

"If my memory is correct, you're new. I didn't see you around before we left. You'll be Rookie, since there's two of ya and there can only be one Mini-A." He seemed to think for a moment while I was quietly insulted. While he thought, I looked up at the male Blaziken. He was rather tall, compared to my new height, and I had to strain my neck back to look at the guy when I was right next to him.

He wore a sarashi, which looked almost like tight bandages, aound his midriff and a purple jacket over his shoulders. I wondered for a moment on exactly he got it to stay on his shoulders. I didn't see any string holding it. It looked a little raggedy, but still respectable for what it was.

Oh, he also wore a Power band over his left eye in such a way that it covered it up completely. He seemed to have a permanent glare going on that was being directed at-

"Didn't your mama ever tell you it's rude to stare?"

He didn't me give me a chance to respond and instead shouted over his shoulder, "Hey, Alvis! We've got another mini-you!" He strode past me a moment later with a bag slung over his shoulder.

I saw a wide toothy grin and some blue fur that wasn't my own before being picked up and squeezed in a bear-hug.

Or, to be more precise, a Lucario-hug.

"Oh Arceus, you're so cute!" The female Lucario, Alvis, squealed.

 _ **Cute!?**_ A man might be handsome, scary, or even small. But _never_ cute!

I struggled, but my arms were held to my side by the force of her embrace. My face was shoved against her, so speaking was useless.

"Hey, Alvis. Let the poor kid go. I think his teammates are waiting on him," a lazy voice requested from somewhere behind Alvis.

"Aw, I'm just getting to know him."

"Then what's his name?"

"Ah," she held me out at arms length and asked, "What's your name, kiddo?"

"I think Blaize actually decided on 'Rookie' for him."

"Ugh, when is he going to let me name one of them?" Alvis whined and my eye twitched. I was first called cute, then held like a teddy bear. For a guy who used to be one of the tallest people in his senior class, and told that he could give one hell of a scary glare, it was becoming annoying.

"My name is Ryan, and can you put me down?" Alvis turned her eyes back to me and I froze in the power of legitimate puppy-dog eyes. How was this possible!? I should have instinctual immunity with such a small and, from an objective viewpoint, 'cute' body!

"Ryan?" I thanked Sin silently as the puppy-dog eyes were turned away from me. Being freed from their paralyzing hold, I pushed her arms apart and she dropped me.

"HinicetomeetyoubutI'vegottogo," I said as I dashed past the one with the lazy voice, an Ampharos with a special band around his tail. I grabbed Sin by the paw and booked it out of there. I may have used Quick Attack on accident because I was next to Axe and Andy in record time.

"Let's go!" I interrupted whatever they were about to ask and tossed Sin on the sheet of metal.

I turned to see a waving paw and a grin from Alvis before the world folded and we headed off to our mission.

I gave a sigh of relief as Axe let out a sickly moan. Sin whacked me with the arm I hadn't grabbed her by and yelled, "I save you from her and you nearly pull my arm out of the socket! What the hell!?"

* * *

BLAIZE'S POV

I dropped the fifteen or so requested items on Tock's desk and told him the items we had not found. We had searched all over those floors, took out every Pokemon, and hadn't found them. Those kind of missions did happen now and again. Either the client dropped it somewhere else entirely, someone else found and took it, or any number of things occurred so that the item in question could not be found. We knew that sometimes happened, so we began taking multiple missions for the same Mystery Dungeon to stack the rewards. If one or the other couldn't be done for some reason, then we could still get some crap done that day. The fifteen items we collected happened to be from Dungeons that were close by. We would just finish up one, exit the Dungeon, then hop right over to another.

"Great job. I'll let you know when the rewards come in," Tock slid the items over into a bag and went back to his paperwork. He had long since stopped being surprised at our large hauls. We had made it a habit, so nowadays he only got wide-eyes when we bring in ten or twenty criminals at once.

Especially when a few of them happen to be the same height as the ceiling and beaten bloody.

Was that-yup. That bloodstain was still on the edge of his desk. Barely visible, but still there.

Those were my favorite missions. Go out, kick some ass, come back and eat. Now if only some more entertaining opponents, aside from Alvis, would show up more often. I hardly ever had to take my jacket off anymore with how easy fights had become.

I left Tock's office and saw a giddy Alvis walk back into the Guild.

A soft cough brought my attention to my left, my blind side, and I saw Alvero leaning against the wall.

"Yo, Blaize, boss man, super pal! You're gonna want ta hear this! So, while you were with Tock, I noticed something off about that adorable Rookie's aura. Felt mostly normal, but off somehow, kinda like yours. Whatcha make o' that?" Alvis walked over to me, tail wagging somewhat and grinning. I noticed a few smaller Pokemon, that were coming up the stairs, quickly dash back down. They apparently recognized Alvis' voice and knew about her love of cute Pokemon. Made her a pain to deal with when our opponents happened to be smaller.

But what was this about Rookie's aura? Alvis had never mentioned this before about anyone else. Her ability with aura sensing wasn't something to smirk at, but what could she mean?

"Your Dodge Scarf is dragging the ground," I said by way of acknowledgement. Her absurdly long Dodge Scarf, which she wore around her neck, was normally wrapped up enough so that one end hung in front while the other hung down her back. Now and again, she wrapped it all the way so that it covered up her face up to her eyes. At that time, however, she only wrapped it around herself enough so that both sides hung in front. I wondered where her Kamina glasses were, but didn't bother to ask.

"Wonder if there are any other newbies," Alvero idly said. Alvis was gone in a moment, a dust outline of her left hanging in the air. Truly, Alvis was the most hyper member out of our team. I heard a few shrill screams and her squeals of delight come from deeper in the Guild. I rolled my eye and looked at Alvero, who had pushed himself off of the wall.

The last Pokemon we had been after had nearly gotten away when Alvero had broken down in a coughing fit from a wispy Smokescreen that the wind had blown in his direction. Alvis had gotten the target and we got the requested item, but Alvero had been wheezing for the rest of the time we were out.

"Alvero-"

"I'm fine. Let's get something to eat." He made his way over to the stairs with his regular slouch. I grimaced a little and decided to keep an eye on him.

The guy was sick, so Alvis and myself had to make sure he didn't push too hard. It wasn't that hard, seeing as he was the laziest person to ever exist. But when we went out on missions and he got the vaguest feeling that his sickness was slowing us down, we typically had to get him to slow down so he didn't get himself hurt.

We, Alvis and myself, had decided to relax for a few days to let Alvero recover. We typically did take off days after big hauls like what we had just done, so he couldn't really complain.

We went down to the mess hall and sat down among a few higher ranked groups. It's true that we were only Gold rank, but that's only because we wanted to be. My team really didn't care about ranks so much as fighting. We were told, ordered, by Tock that any time that Alvis and myself sparred seriously, we had to go to a Dungeon and hash it out.

And any time we had a three-way spar, we had to be sure not to collapse the Mystery Dungeon. We're still not sure how we managed to destroy the entire cave system, due to us being fully engrossed in our fight. I felt more alive during those kind of spars than with most supposed 'higher level' missions. Pfft. I hadn't gone on one of those that made me take off my jacket in years.

As we ate, I listened to what all happened around the Guild while we were gone. We had been gone for a long time doing tasks for the Guild. Scouting a new high-risk Mystery Dungeon. Visiting a few other Guilds. Different stuff.

We shared stories about different fights that we found funny or entertaining, what all we had been up to, etc. That is, until the topic of Rookie came up.

"Kid got himself a legit Cubone bone on his very first mission," someone mentioned and the conversation turned that way. I remembered seeing it over his shoulder when I had walked past. It's what made me take a second look and realize that the kid wasn't Mini-A (Mini-Alvis).

If he hadn't stared, I wouldn't have had to sic Alvis on him. But after hearing a few stories about him, I regretted not looking even closer at him.

"No one has a clue about where he came from."

"He says the weirdest stuff."

"I've hardly ever seen him use any actual moves. He just uses Ben. Yeah, his club."

He named his club Ben? And he etched names as well as strange symbols on it?

"He's asked me about Pokemon that can manipulate space or are rumored to be able to."

Why would he do that? The more I heard about this kid, the more I wanted to see what he was about.

I began to grin and felt some excitement stir. I had been so bored lately. Perhaps-

"No. Count me out of it," Alvero pointed at me with a look.

"I know that expression. Whatever it is, I'm not helping." I shrugged in answer and he watched me warily. So maybe plans involving that grin had started a few natural disasters and a few mental breakdowns of other Pokemon. They got better! Eventually...

* * *

RYAN'S POV

I helped carry Axe a few meters and heard Sin flop onto the ground next to Andy with a little giggle. I sighed in exasperation and handed Axe a Heal seed before moving back to my other, equally out of order, teammate.

"Heeeey, Rayan," Sin said drunkenly. She had been hit by an Attract and, before it wore off, a Confuse Ray. The two had mixed and Sin had, for the rest of the mission, been giggling and blowing kisses at every Pokemon we came across. The two moves would have wore off after a minute to a few minutes on their own. But the mixing of the two had done something unique and made it last much longer. Heal seeds didn't work, so we got the mission done quickly and got back to the Guild.

"C'mon Sin, let's go." I hauled her up and over my shoulder. She squealed at the movement and I twitched. Sin had never acted anything like this. Even when we had gone out for a drink and she had chugged a whole bottle on a dare, she hadn't been like this. She had just grinned and collected the Gummi that had been part of the bet. I hardly sipped any of what was offered, leery of what I might say while inebriated.

Pokemon had a bit more lenient look on drinking compared to my old world. Members of the Guild could drink as long as we could still perform our duties and pay for it. And not make fool's of themselves or the Guild. I found it interesting, even if I never planned to make use of it.

"Go on ahead," Axe waved to me from his sitting position. "I'll be fine in a little while. Go put her in her bed and keep an eye on her."

I nodded to him and yelped when one of Sin's claws scratched my tail. I resisted the urge to slap her and moved my tail out of her range. I was given a few odd looks and I waved them off with a, "Mixed Confuse Ray and Attract. She's still loopy."

Apparently stuff like that happened often enough that I wasn't questioned further. I brought her down the stairs and she began talking somewhere around the second sub level.

Most of it was nonsense, and was ignored, but she eventually whispered, "Hey, can you keep a secret?"

I blinked and she went on.

"I'm not from here," she whispered to me and I nearly missed the next step from the shock.

"What do you mean?" Sin couldn't possibly be from Earth, could she?

"I'm a lot like you, hehe," she giggled and my heart sped up. Could she?

"Where are you from?"

"But that would be telling. I'm not supposed to tell," her voice had taken on the quality of a child that was saying that something was against the rules.

"It's okay," I tried to reason with her. I needed to know!

"M'kay. I'm from-"

"What happened to her?" I had the extreme urge to kick Ken in the throat when he spoke because Sin locked up.

"Mixed attack. She's still loopy. Gonna put her to bed." I pushed past Ken and got to our room. Sin hadn't let out a peep and I only realized that she had went to sleep after laying her down in her bed. I wanted to punch a wall in frustration. I had been so close to seeing if she was from Earth!

Instead, I positioned her a little more comfortably and put her blanket over her. I was moving to get up when she snatched my left arm and brought it closer to her. I tried pulling away, but gave up when her claws began to tighten, cutting through fur.

I winced and was forced to sit down next to her head because she began snuggling my arm with both paws. I debated waking her up so I could get my arm back, but held off. I had always found waking someone without good reason to be pretty dang rude. She was sick, basically, and needed to sleep it off.

I glanced back at her, to make sure she was asleep, then forced the crystals to dim. I got in a sitting position that was somewhat comfortable, for being against rock, and tried to nap.

I opened one eye when Axe stepped into the room and forced the crystals to only brighten a little.

I mouthed, 'I didn't know she was a snuggler. She's got my arm.'

Axe grinned and mouthed back, 'Didn't seem like something I needed to bring up. You want some help getting free?'

I waved my paw in a negative gesture.

'Nah. I'll just wait til she wakes up.'

Axe shrugged and left the room. I dimmed the crystals and closed my eyes once again. Her breath tickled the fur on my arm.

* * *

That's a wrap! Blaize, Alvero, and Alvis all belong to Insomniac98338. He came up with them and is letting me use them. They are his brainchildren *shoves credit of those three over in his direction*. Xion is from Freak4Lucario. Many thanks for him!

Thanks to the ones that have reviewed. I made this chapter extra long just for you!

...actually, I just got carried away...meh...

Answer: Favorite Move: Wide Slash (because it clears out Monster Houses pretty quickly). [Aura Sphere is a close second because it never misses and is fun to use to take out fleeing criminals.] Favorite Item: X-Ray-Specs. (I love that eye in the sky.) Favorite Pokemon: You guessed it, Lucario. (I have gotten Riolu in every PMD game I've played thus far and love the little bugger.)

Question: What weapon, if you could have any weapon from any game/anime/movie/book franchise or era of history, would you have?

Review! And Happy New Year.


	4. Do you want a dumpling?

It Shall Begin and End With Pain chap 4

So this chapter took longer than the others. My bad. To make up for that, it's a decent deal longer than my usual chapters. I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can be.

~ Harold Taylor

* * *

Did you want a dumpling?

Chapter 4

RYAN'S POV

I held in an instinctive hiss at the sting when Sin's claws squeezed. I blinked a few times to adjust to the low lighting I had set the crystals at before falling asleep. It had taken me a good while to figure out how to 'set' the crystals to their lighting. It felt a little like there were notches and I could slide the crystal's 'settings' in one of those notches by focusing. Since I was working solely by guesswork and visualization, it was difficult.

"Hn." I looked to my left at the grunt she let out. Her brow was wrinkled and she was frowning. I could feel her individual claws twitch as she slept, which is what caused me to wake up.

She looked upset. A nightmare, probably. So I shook her shoulder and whispered, "Wake up."

To my surprise, her eyes opened immediately. She blinked a few times, looked at me, looked at my arm in her claws, then let it go. I took a moment to check and saw that, aside from thin lacerations, she hadn't cut me too badly. Those would heal in an hour or so.

I scooted a little away from her before I said, "You were pretty out of it after taking that Attract and Confuse Ray combo. What do you remember?"

She sat up and rubbed her head with a wince.

"I feel like crap, that's for sure. Headache is making it hard to think."

"Here," I passed her a nearby Heal seed. I made a note to go and get some more from Ivysaur with how low our supplies of them were getting. After a minute, I passed her my canteen. Water would do her some good.

She had gutted her own canteen a few minutes after she managed to open her backpack when we were taking a break. We split up the load after that with Axe carrying Sin and me loaded up with her, slightly cut up, pack.

She grunted a thanks and ate in silence.

"Where's Axe?"

"I'm not sure. Brought you here to recover and you latched on to my arm after I set you in your bed. Axe popped in for a minute and left. Probably eating or taking a nap somewhere," I joked.

"Ah, sorry about that."

"No problem. You were pretty out of it. That ever happen to you before?"

"The mixed effects? No. What's up with the lights?" She waved an open paw towards the still-dim crystals and I mentally cursed.

"Uh, sorry about that." Well, it was as good of a time as any. I focused and 'removed' the crystal from the 'notch' I had it set in. A wave of my paw had them lit up to their normal intensity.

"You've got some skill with aura?"

I blinked, caught off guard from the random question.

"Uh, I don't think so. I'm not sure. Why?"

"Cause I've only seen one other person mess with them like that and they're a Lucario. Can you do Aura Sphere?"

"I'm not sure. I've never tried. Riolu normally can't, I thought."

"Eh," Sin shrugged and took a last sip of water before handing it back to me.

"Doesn't matter. You think the mess hall is open?"

Apparently, it was some time in between lunch and dinner that the mess hall was, in fact, closed. We had slept for several hours.

We made ourselves a small snack out of apples and berries, as usual, and sat in some woods just outside Ivycross.

The place was nice. Quiet and peaceful. A typical wooded area. After going through so many Dungeons that had the looks, but not the characteristics, of normalcy, it was nice to actually be in a normal place.

We sat on opposite sides of a tree while we ate. The sunlight was filtered nicely by the leafy ceiling so that it felt warm, but not uncomfortably so. Ben was set next to me, within reach. (It had become a habit to keep it on-hand at all times.)

Honestly, I expected to see Axe lazing about somewhere nearby. It was perfect napping weather and I regretted sleeping earlier.

"We found you here," Sin said after awhile.

"Hm?"

"Awhile ago. This is where we found you."

I blinked and took another look around.

"Well, not right here. But in these woods."

I thought back to the few glimpses I had gotten of the area before I had passed out.

"I'm surprised that I haven't been here before now." Why hadn't I? I know that I was a creature of habit and routine, but did I really never spare some time to just look around the outskirts of Ivycross?

Looking at all of my spent free time, I discovered that the answer was a resounding negative.

All of my time had been spent honing my body and getting used to the world I was in. Any time I wasn't eating, training, or doing missions I was usually sleeping.

The lazy person in me was horrified at all the non-lazy stuff I had done during my time. So many opportunities to do nothing, lost forever.

"Why do we work so much harder than other teams?" I had been meaning to ask.

I heard her shoulders move against the bark in what I assumed was a shrug.

"We just do. I found out that Axe could keep up and, after seeing that you could keep up, we didn't slow down."

That was a fair answer. If something worked, no need to change it. It lifted a load off of my chest to know that I didn't slow them down much, if any.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For letting me on your team without a fuss. I don't remember thanking you or Axe-"

"Don't be getting sappy," Sin cut me off.

I chuckled at her.

"Right." I changed the subject. "Who are those three that we saw this morning?"

"Team Baal?"

"That the Blaziken, Lucario, and Ampharos?"

"Yes. They've been around the Guild for a long time. Years, I think. They're Gold rank. Beware of Alvis."

"The Lucario?"

"Yes."

"I know," I muttered with a shiver. "She ever do that to you?"

"She tries now and again. I learned Quick Attack the day after meeting her."

"Does that work?"

"Sometimes. But she really likes cuddling Ken, so I don't think a little Quick Attack is going to cut it."

"Damn," I cursed and sighed while relaxing against the tree.

"You hardly ever use moves." She said it as a statement, but left it open for me to follow.

"Ben works." I appreciated the opening, I really did. Someday, I might even tell her why. But not then. Not in that moment.

"Alright Rookie, listen up!" A giant kickboxing fire-chicken, otherwise known as Blaize, landed scant inches in front of me and scowled as he spoke.

"While your colleagues appear to be content to see you waste your potential, the same cannot be said for me! Who the hell do you think you are, poncing around like you think you're a Cubone or something?! What kind of Fighting type are you?! I'm embarrassed and, quite frankly, slightly offended to share a typing with you."

I looked around the tree, hoping to beg Sin with my eyes-she was already fifty meters away and sprinting.

"Hey, are you listening, Rookie?! Your potential extends only as far as you're willing to push the limits of your body! No more half-assing everything you do!" _Half-assing!?_ "Today, you're not leaving my sight until you can demonstrate a Force Palm to Alvis' satisfaction!"

My heart, and manliness, froze in fear at the idea of learning from her. I needed to get out of there before-

"Alvis, teach Rookie how to use Force Palm. The days of relying on Ben the club shall come to an end, here and now!"

I felt myself pale and scrambled to run. It turns out that the automatic movement to don Ben's sheath is what damned me.

The world vanished from under my feet and I struggled to get loose of the grip that lifted me up in the air by the sheath that held Ben in place.

"Your wish is my command, Boss-man." I shivered at the overly-happy voice of a certain Lucario and went limp in the sling in hopes that her attention would stay elsewhere.

"C'mon, cutie!" The world blurred and I felt wind move by at great speeds.

"Ugh," I went even more limp in the sling, this time due to feeling ill.

"Yeah, Extremespeed does that to some," Alvis said, some pity showing in her tone.

"C'mon, Rookie! I'm not about to let my source of entertainment-I mean a valuable new member of our Guild-get killed just cause he can't fight."

"But I do just fine-"

"Nope," in one movement, the sling was off of me and hanging from a branch at the edge of the clearing I had been brought to. I _still_ don't understand how he threw it so perfectly.

"Now, Alvis. If you would."

I turned to look at Alvis, resigned to my fate after seeing how fast they could move, and twitched at the sight.

...where the hell did those Kamina shades come from? She hadn't been wearing them before.

* * *

ALVERO'S POV

"Hmm," I hummed and got up from the warm water I had been soaking in. I had been relaxing for the last hour or so and decided that I might as well get something done.

...on second thought, another hour wouldn't hurt. If I was legitimately considering something that was not relaxing, resting, or moving somewhere to do one of those then there was a problem.

An hour passed comfortably with different Pokemon coming and going. The underground hot springs were close, and accessible via a hatch in the Guild. Because of their closeness, I typically gave them a visit when Team Baal was back at the Guild.

But once the hour passed, I exited the pool of bliss and headed back to the surface via a different tunnel. I dried off as I walked. Once I got ground level, I looked around for a minute and thought about what to do next.

Blaize and Alvis were off somewhere. Probably with the rookie, Ryan. I think that's what his name was. Eh. Let fighting types be fighting types and train for fun.

My mind wandered, for some unknown reason, to Blaize's eye patch. And then to Alvis' Kamina glasses (I think that's what Blaize called them). I stared at the rocky ceiling far above and considered them for a minute, trying not to get distracted by finding shapes in the stone above.

I was one of the few to have ever seen under his eye patch, back when we had first met. He hadn't had one on back then and he needed someone to tie it on since he didn't have any arms to do it himself.

Alvis got those stupid glasses off of some crime boss. I couldn't remember which, it had been so long ago. Back when she was a Riolu and didn't follow me around like a lost puppy. Not as much, anyways.

But I considered the two items and came to a decision.

I needed some sort of headgear. I couldn't have only two members of our team have items adorning their craniums and not have a little something myself.

At a slow walk, I made my way to Ivysaur's shop. I coughed upon entry, feeling the nursing effects of the hot spring's air beginning to lessen. That's another reason I visited the hot springs so often. I rarely had coughing fits the same day that I went to the springs, so I tried visiting often. Hap said that it did my health good to visit them.

Ivysaur looked up from a box he had been sorting through and greeted me.

"Alvero! Anything you need?" Quick and to the point. After selling supplies to members of the Guild, and Ivycross Town in general, for so many years, he had figured out that most prefer a straightforward question. Made it so that we got in and out as quickly as possible. That was a habit most got after exploring for so long.

"Headgear. Anything you've got, I want to see it. I'm not picky about a design."

Ivysaur pushed the box he was messing around with away and moved into a back room with a, "Be back in a minute," thrown over his shoulder. He returned a bit later with a bucket full of different cloths held by one vine and a box full of various forms of eye wear in another.

"Just let me know if you're interested in anything," he sent at me before returning to his wares.

* * *

"No." A pair of glasses went into an already large pile.

"Not a chance." An eye patch, black and perfect for a pirate (or a certain kickboxing fire chicken), followed the glasses.

I ignored a snore from Ivysaur, who had nodded off after finishing up what he had been up to. And the thing after that. And the thing after that. As well as one or two customers that came in and out.

I had been there for awhile.

Finally, I tried tying a bandana around my face with some goggles that had been with them. They both had streaks of orange through an ocean of blue and I looked at myself in a small mirror.

"I'll take these," I plop a medium-sized bag of Pokè down in front of him, waking him from his nap.

"'Bout time. What made you decide on those?"

In a deadpan tone, I answered, "All the stray Smokescreens in the world couldn't stop me now. Mwahaha."

Ivysaur, just about immune from the constant exposure to the more eccentric members of Ivycross Guild, didn't flinch when ominous thunder was heard from outside after that statement. His eyes did flicker to check and, as usual, there wasn't any indication that a storm was brewing.

"Someday, I'm going to figure out how you people do that crap," Ivysaur grumbled as I made my way outside. I chuckled lowly and a cough followed. The tickle in my throat insisted that I cough more, but I held the flow back with practiced ease.

I stopped a few steps outside of the shop and muttered, "Oh but these look ridiculous." I slid the tied bandana down my face and neck so that it sat at the base. I moved the goggles so that they sat on the top of my head.

"That'll do."

With that declaration, I went off to find my teammates. I wondered how much progress they made with the kid.

* * *

RYAN'S POV

I was surprised. Despite their eccentric natures, mainly Alvis' desires to pinch my cheeks and squeal at my "adorable pouting expression," they were good teachers.

And, for the record, I do not pout. I _glare_. **Glare**! **Feel my rage!**

But in about two hours, I found myself proficient with Quick Attack and "I suppose good enough," according to Alvis with Force Palm. Blaize agreed, grudgingly.

Oh, you want to know how they trained me?

Well it was quite simple. They got logs. A whole big pile of logs. I know we were in the middle of a forest and everything, but I still don't know how they got a pile big enough to rival the trees nearby in height.

Then said logs were sent at me. Fast. My choices were to dodge them, deflect them with Force Palm, or break them with the same attack. If they were not in pieces, from hitting something and breaking or by the shockwave of a Force Palm, then they were picked up and sent at me once again.

I'm glad to say that they made sure I could use Force Palm before they started all this. Despite their eccentricities, they weren't totally insane when it came to training me how to survive.

 **"WHY ARE THEY ON FIRE!?"**

"Extra _incentive_!" Blaize grinned and sent another one, now aflame, towards me.

Not totally sane either. I'm pretty sure Blaize is just a little sadistic.

Eventually, with a combination of me purposely deflecting them into hard surfaces, them burning to ashes on their own, and me breaking them into splinters via Force Palm, they ran out of logs.

That's when I fell to the ground, exhausted. My breath was heaving and my arms were aching far worse than any instance I could think of in my short time in that world. Even when I got a mild break from a training accident and it was wrapped up like a mummy by Hap did my arms not ache as much as they did then.

"You know that Hap is gonna be pissed if you get another one in the med bay for a month, again."

I rolled my head to the side and saw Alvero walking into the clearing. I thanked the Ampharos in my head for distracting them for a bit.

"He's _fine_ ," Blaize insisted.

 ** _I'm dying!_**

Okay, not really. But my arms hurt a whole lot.

"What do you have on?" Blaize asked, turning his attention away from me for the first time in awhile.

"Something to take care of any stray Smokescreens in the future." He, Alvero, pushed the cloth around his neck up and around the lower half of his face while fitting the goggles around his eyes.

Alvis bounded over to him and took a close-probably closer than necessary-look at his new items. He didn't lean away from the closeness. He was probably desensitized to it by then.

"I think they look nice," she said in a calm voice.

It was unexpected. I had only heard her speak in an upbeat tone with a grin just about any time she wasn't giggling or concentrating on something. The way she spoke to Alvero was different from how I had seen her speak to Blaize or anyone else. Softer. More open, yet hesitant.

"Did you purposely try to go with a team color theme?" Blaize asked, stepping closer. I saw what he meant and wondered the same thing. The orange and blue looked surprisingly good when Alvero was with Blaize and Alvis. Their natural fur and feather colors-

"What are you staring at?" And now the whole team was looking at me. I had zoned out.

"Sorry," I mumbled while pushing myself to a sitting position.

Ben was dropped next to me and I looked up to see Alvis and Alvero waking away and Blaize standing in front of me.

"You did well, Rookie. Now don't let me hear about you only using that or I'll have to sic Alvis on you for a lesson on Extremespeed. Hint, that's the move she used to bring you here." I honestly wondered if the guy was sadistic when I saw his grin after that statement/threat. He had the look to him, with all the Japanese delinquent stuff. Plus the eye patch.

"Right. Thanks for the lesson," I kept my voice level, trying to seem somewhat grateful. Perhaps I would be grateful at a later time, but right then my arms were aching far too much to be happy about the lesson I had just received.

Especially when they had stolen a day of relaxing from me.

Instead of responding, he just stared at me for a moment. I felt like a bug under a microscope and just kept my partially-dead eyes locked with his one.

"Where are you from?" I couldn't stop my eyes from widening just a tiny bit before forcing them back into a half-lidded state.

"Nowhere interesting. You from anywhere I would recognize?" I doubted it. Not unless it was a Mystery Dungeon I had gone to or Ivycross Town.

"Probably not. It's very far away."

My pulse quickened. "Funny. I'm from a place far away as well."

There was a silence. Then Blaize began to say-

"Yo, Ryan!"

 **ARCEUSDAMNIT, KEN!**

The other Riolu of Ivycross Guild walked into the clearing and hesitated at the murderous look he was receiving from me. Oh wait, Blaize seemed pretty pissed as well. Were those-yup, those were flames flickering at his wrists.

"Hey, Ken," I said after reigning in the 'I will eviscerate you' look I was sporting.

"Uh, did I interrupt anything?"

YES! AGAIN!

"No," I said, _CALMLY_ , while standing up. "What do you need?"

"Axe asked me to come and get you. He mentioned that it was something important. He also said that you might need help walking-"

"I'm fine." I donned Ben's sheath and began walking. My legs ached a bit, but my arms were the worst and I could deal with walking just fine.

"Talk to you later, Blaize."

"Later, Rookie."

Despite wanting nothing more than to find out what Blaize was about to say, I jogged back to the Guild with Ken.

"Any idea what's so important?" I asked Ken.

"I'm not sure. Axe just seemed really excited while Sin was rolling her eyes."

* * *

Dumplings. That's what I was interrupted for.

 _Dumplings_.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot it was dumpling night," Ken sniffed the air, enjoying the fragrance that could be smelled upon entering the guild.

"Ken."

"Yeah?"

I really felt like putting an overpowered Force Palm right in his face.

"Never mind. Let's eat!" I plastered a grin on my face and restrained the urge to kill.

Ken leaned away from me at the sight of the grin. I don't think I was convincing enough.

Those dumplings better be tear-inducing tasty.

"Ryan!" I went over to Axe and gaped at the mountain-yes mountain-of dumplings piled on a platter in front of him. It was easily twice his height and about the same width as him. A twin mountain sat in front of a Rhydon and said Rhydon was waiting with arms crossed.

"Finally!" Bryson, the Rhydon, bellowed once he saw me.

"Eh?"

"C'mon," Sin grabbed me by the, still somewhat aching, arm and dragged me next to Axe.

I noticed at that point that the majority of the room's eyes were trained on us.

"Eating contest," Sin supplied at my panicked look. "It's traditional."

I repeat, _"Eh!?"_

"Just keep the food directed towards the abyss, otherwise known as Axe, and munch on one now and again."

"Ahem," Alvis, who had somehow got on the table between the platters without me noticing, cleared her throat and the room fell silent.

"The competition between Bryson, of Team Rock Solid, and-these three will begin when this hits the table." She pulled off her Dodge Scarf and held it out.

"Everyone ready?"

Everyone, myself excluded, gave some sort of noise of confirmation. I was just preparing to stuff myself and hoped that I didn't make a fool of myself.

Alvis dropped it and yelled "Go!" when it thumped down on the table.

I immediately reached for a dumpling and found it, along with the seven surrounding it, suddenly gone. I managed to get my paw on one and threw it in my mouth as quickly as I could. The dumplings were each about the size of a golf ball and I could taste something delicious inside of them. A type of berry, maybe?

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to enjoy the taste. I quickly chewed and swallowed before stuffing another in my mouth. I saw that Sin was shredding them in the time it took for her to bring them to her mouth.

Axe... Axe was in a league of his own. His paws were a blur of motion. They grabbed from the top of the mountain, careful not to tip it over, and the dumpling was gone before I recognized that he had grabbed it. I looked over at Bryson, who was easily taller than the three of us put together. His mountain was only a little shorter than ours.

The crowd waited in tense silence. I tried picking up the pace, surprised at myself that I had managed to keep up with Sin for the most part.

"Woooo!" A cheer began when the mountains of dumplings began to resemble hills. Soon they were mounds. My arms burned from the repeated motions of grabbing and pulling towards myself. My stomach protested the treatment and I had slowed down dramatically. Sin had stopped altogether, physically appearing bigger from all that she had consumed. She assisted Axe in throwing dumplings in his maw while it was open. It took precision work and more than one bounced off of his lips and had to be quickly caught.

"Winner!" The mess hall shook with the cheers as Alvis lifted Axe and Sin up in the air by their paws. I had gotten out of the way fast enough. I looked over at Bryson's platter and saw that there were only about three or four left on it. So very close. Bryson looked at his platter, specifically at the dumplings still left on it, and nodded once to us before falling backwards while letting out a content belch. I couldn't help but grin at the sight.

Suddenly, I felt myself in the air. Someone had grabbed on to Ben's sheath and hauled me up.

I needed to install spikes or something on it before this became a recurring theme.

"Let's hear it for these three!" I was-actually not too surprised to see that the Guild Leader (who I had learned was named Tor but would Hydro Pump you into oblivion if she heard you say it) was at the party and was the one lifting me up.

The room cheered at T-the Guild Leader threw me into the crowd. I had a heart stopping moment when I thought I was about to hit the ground. Then I landed on the various appendages that rose to catch me and move me above the crowd.

It that what it feels to crowd surf? It felt pretty weird, but also somehow awesome.

I had fully embraced the party atmosphere and was laughing as I was passed around the room. I saw that Axe had his eyes closed while the crowd passed him around the room. I'm still not sure if he was napping or just enjoying it, but I would bet it was the former.

Sin was sitting next to the platter and watched us with a good-natured smirk. It didn't surprise me that she hadn't wanted to be manhandled, which was involved with crowd surfing.

In fact, aside from necessary contact, she rarely allowed others to stay close. She had a habit of avoiding large groups of Pokemon, and not just monster houses. Even her sitting on the table instead of the bench distanced her from the crowd that surrounded her on all sides.

I tapped the ones holding me and they let me down with some congratulatory words a moment later. I smiled and made my way through the crowd to Sin.

Before I could get to her, a figure stepped right in my way. I paused and waited for a moment for whoever it was to move on. It was crowded, so it was expected that it would be difficult to get through.

But when the Xatu continued to stare down at me, that's when I began to get a weird feeling.

"'Scuse me," I tried squeezing past him, but an extended wing blocked my path.

Faster than I could react, the other wing curled around my arm and Xatu flashed white for a mere second.

When the light faded, the sounds of the crowd were gone. I recognized the folding feeling of being teleported. Acting out of fear, I smacked the wing holding me away and put some distance between us with a jump backwards.

Grabbing Ben, I yelled, "What's going on?"

The Xatu, who I had never seen before until that point, turned and looked at a point behind me.

"I've brought him, my lady."

Feeling a thrill of panic, I turned and swung Ben at the presence I only just registered.

It was stopped by nothing obvious and I only figured out what happened when I saw the faint blue glow around Ben. I looked up and saw that it was the floating Pokemon that was directing the psychic move.

"Thank you, Sabastion. Please leave us." The gray and pink, floating Pokemon ordered the Xatu and a flash of blue light told me that he was gone. The blue glow appeared around my own body and my ability to move disappeared.

The ability to move my mouth and eyes remained, and I went ahead and used them.

"And you are?" I honestly didn't remember this Pokemon's name. I knew that she was a legendary, but I couldn't bring her name up for the life of me. Wasn't she one of a trio? Something to do with...lakes?

"My name is Mesprit. I'm the one who asked Sabastion to bring you here."

So that's what her name was.

"Charmed, truly I am," I drawled. "Who doesn't love getting kidnapped from parties?"

I counted her rolling eyes as a success.

"Do you have any idea about why I had him bring you?"

"Not really. Did you want me to bring you a dumpling?"

Her left eye began twitching. I discovered the perfect weapon against Psychic types that have you in a hold: **sass**!

"No. I brought you here-"

"Oi, Mesprit! I thought we were meeting in the other place," a new voice appeared, but I couldn't turn my head to see who it was.

"I thought Uxie told you?"

"Sorry, Azelf. Forgot." Another new, sleepy sounding, voice appeared.

"For the one who controls memory and knowledge, you sure are forgetful," the newly named Azelf commented without heat.

Uxie hummed in response, but didn't say anything to contradict it.

"No, please. Just keep on like I'm not here," I said over the shoulder of Mesprit, who was looking past me to her two siblings. As least, I think they were siblings? I knew that they were the 'lake trio' that I had thought about before.

"He's a sarcastic guy," Azelf commented. "I like him already!"

Mesprit sighed and turned me around and lifted me up a bit so that I faced the three of them at the same level. They stared back at me with varied expressions. Mesprit had something that was vaguely exasperated. Azelf had a sort of grin going on. Uxie-was asleep. Wait, no! He just had a slack expression on and his eyes were closed. I doubted that Pokemon could float and sleep at the same time: it didn't make sense...then again, this was the Pokemon world.

As close as they were, I really wished that I had some sort of mouth based, long-range attack. Did Riolu have a single decent long-ranged attack that I could learn on a dime?

No? Damn.

"Now before anything else interrupts," she waited for a moment for the inevitable interruption.

There was none.

"Huh, didn't expect that. Anyways-"

"Oi, Ryan!"

For once, I didn't feel the rage of the ancients filling my veins at the sound of Ken's voice.

"And this is why we should have picked any other place than behind the very building he was just in to bring him," Uxie said. I'm pretty sure I heard Mesprit's teeth grinding at that statement.

"Ov-" my mouth closed against my will and the world folded in on itself. My mouth was released.

"We're sorry!" Mesprit shouted, making me flinch at the suddenness of it.

"Eh?"

Mesprit took a calming breath before starting again.

"We had Sabastion get you so we could apologize."

I blinked before saying, "For what?"

Uxie spoke next.

"While it wasn't us, we wanted to apologize that you were brought to this world."

My heart froze and, if I wasn't already unable to move, my body would have stiffened. My eyes were definitely wide, anyways.

"You were the ones to bring me here? Why?"

"We weren't, Ryan," Azelf said, crossing his arms as he went on, "I am in charge of keeping balance in the world. There's no way I would have participated in bringing someone from outside this universe into it. My siblings had no part in it either."

"Then who? Who else has been brought? And how can I get home? Where are we? Wh-" my mouth was immobilized once more and Uxie spoke next.

"We can't tell you that. One other, that we know of. I don't know. It doesn't matter. Let him speak, Mesprit."

I waited a moment and chose my words well.

"Thank you for your apology. And can you at least give me a hint as to who brought me here? Or the reason why?"

The three of them looked at each other and seemed to communicate through look alone.

Or maybe they were speaking telepathically. They are Psychic types. And Legendaries, to boot.

"No. Despite their quirks, they are family. That's why we are apologizing for them. But I'm sure you will come in contact with them at some point."

"When?" Mesprit's tone gave me a feeling that this conversation was coming to a close, so I said it with a somewhat desperate tone.

I needed to know.

"Soon enough," Uxie said, cryptically.

There was a flash of light before I found myself falling a short distance and landing back-down on a hard surface.

The impact knocked some breath out of me and I coughed a few times into my fist before looking up.

Everyone stared back at me. I had appeared back on the table, next to the platters where we had won the competition not half an hour before. There were, surprisingly, still a few dumplings left on one.

"Ryan?"

I looked to see Axe pushing through the crowd and I quickly plastered a grin on my face.

"Hey, what happened to the party? Don't tell me that you need me here to keep the party going?" The atmosphere relaxed and people began to talk to one another and music began to be played by a band in a corner somewhere as the party started once again.

I sheathed Ben and hopped down from the table.

"What happened?" Axe met me on the ground.

When had my smile faded? I reinforced my grin and said, "It's nothing. Enjoy the party!" I patted him on the shoulder good-naturedly as I went past. I made my way through the crowd, letting them see nothing more than someone who was there to have a good time.

Until I left the room. Once I was headed up the stairs, I let the expression fade. Some had looked worried-the majority had, actually. But telling them what happened would be telling them too much. It wasn't their problem.

"Going somewhere?" Tock was leaning a little out of his office. Guess he wasn't one for parties.

"Just getting some air. I think I ate too fast." I grimaced a bit and bent over a little, as though in some mild pain.

"This is your first celebratory-type night, so I'll go ahead and tell you. Curfew is more lax, but is still in place. Be back here by midnight. I hope your stomach settles," Tock said by way of farewell and moved back into his office.

I went outside and headed straight for the forest close to the Guild. The one I had appeared in.

I'm not sure how far I walked in before I sat down and leaned against a tree. I looked up, through a hole in the canopy above, and looked at the stars. The moon gave off enough light that I was able to see well enough. The ground was spotted with the moonlight that lit the night sky.

My thoughts wandered.

I wondered if Pokemon had any deities that they associated with the moon. Was he or she responsible for bringing me here? Mesprit had said that 'they' were family. Was the one who brought me a Legendary?

And why couldn't they apologize themselves? Were they ashamed? Afraid of how I would react? Did they just not care?

I felt some anger spark as the thoughts.

Why hadn't they, whoever 'they' was, at least talked to me?

As foolish as it was, it felt as though someone was talking behind my back. But instead of simple gossip or rude words, they were playing me like some novice puppeteer. Pulling strings and seeing what would happen.

"Ryan."

I stiffened, fearful that they had heard my thoughts.

The moment I saw Sin, I recovered from that foolish idea and smi-

" _Don't_ give me that shit," she pointed at my mouth, which had froze halfway to a grin. I dropped it and was about to ask her why she was not enjoying the party. I opened my mouth-

"If I think the next thing to come out of your mouth is to distract me, I will beat you over the head with your stupid club," her threatening tone cowed any desire to defend Ben.

"What the hell happened?"

"Ah, umm," I searched for the right answer that wasn't actually the real answer.

"You suddenly disappeared after that Xatu grabbed you. What happened?"

"They just wanted to talk-"

"Talk!?" Her voice rose with her anger. "Who the hell do you mean and why did they _take_ you just to 'talk.'"

Why was she taking this so badly?

"They just wanted to apologize on someone's behalf for something that happened in the past." There. Completely truthful, if lacking in details.

Sin's claws buried themselves in the wood to the left and right of my head, scant inches to either side.

I began to sweat.

"Why?"

Unreasonable anger gripped me and I yelled without thinking.

"Because I'm not from this world and they were sorry!"

I felt a pit of horror form as the echo of my shout faded. The anger in Sin's face had been replaced with something akin to confusion.

I slumped against the tree and looked at the stars.

"I'm not from this world," I admitted.

"I'm not a Riolu," why was I still talking?

"I'm not even a kind of Pokemon." Oh well, better keep going.

"The day you found me was the first thing I remember since coming to this world. It was a rude arrival," I chuckled weakly.

"The reason I was taken was because Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf wanted to apologize for someone else. The one who brought me to this world. _They_ did it without my consent. I didn't even know what I was and what had happened until I looked at my paws."

Sin jerked her claws free of the wood and I looked at her in an alarmed manner, ready to dive to the side if they moved forward again. She sat down next to me. It wasn't rubbing shoulders close, but it was far closer than Sin normally sat when it came to me.

I felt reassured. Just a little. I began to talk about my family. About my life before I came to that world.

The last day I remembered. I remembered it in bizarre clarity, for some reason. I even remembered what I had for breakfast: waffles.

I drowned those delicious suckers in syrup. _Mmm_.

As I talked, I felt my tension ease. Just letting someone know, telling them the whole truth, was freeing in a way. She didn't tell me to stop...she didn't give any indications at all, actually.

"Ah, Sin?"

No response.

"Sin?" I looked to my right and my eye twitched when I saw that her head was positioned against the tree and she was sleeping.

I paused, then began to laugh quietly. She stirred and opened an eye at the sound.

"You done?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Freaking finally. I don't really care about your past," she said while getting to her feet and stretching. She had been in the same position for an hour or so.

"Or about where you're from or what you used to be, either. But if you need someone's ass kicked, or got some sort of problem, then ask your team. That's what we're here for."

She scowled as she said, "And for the love of Arceus. If you do tell us about your world, make it interesting crap! I fell asleep after you began describing the fluffiness of-what were they? Never mind."

"Right," I agreed. "I'm surprised that you're so relaxed about this." Well, aside from being a little annoyed. But Sin was always like that.

"What do you want me to act like? Freak out and run away screaming about aliens?"

Her deadpan tone had me laughing and I shook my head in the negative.

"Never mind. I think I would prefer this. I wonder how Axe is going to react?"

Sin paused in contemplation before shrugging. No way to find out until you try."

* * *

"So I'm not originally from this world, not originally a Riolu, and-hey, are you listening?"

Axe was sprinting alongside Sin and myself as we ran from the monster house we had stumbled on.

There I was, telling him something I considered a great secret, and he was hardly listening. How rude.

"Not from this world, not human, yeah yeah! Now RUN!"

I grinned like an idiot until we found the item we were searching for and returned home. Sin smacked me for pulling that out on Axe at the worst possible time. The moment had just _felt_ right.

I mean, when isn't it a good time to spring that on someone? Sure, there were Pokemon thirsting for our blood and bellowing threateningly behind us, but I thought that was a good time. We had a few Escape Orbs, just if they caught up.

In any case, Axe was pretty relaxed about it. The main thing he focused on is, yup, you guessed it.

A knife-specifically of the cooking variety-embedded itself in the table next to my paw.

"I just realized," Axe started, speaking with a thought-filled tone, "you coming from somewhere else," I relaxed when he avoided mentioning my secret in the mess hall we sat, "means that you know different foods."

I felt a sudden accumulation behind me and glanced over my shoulder.

"Yes?" I asked to the group of various Guild Pokemon that looked at me intently. Wait, why we're a few of them wearing cooks hats?

"We heard you might know different types of food!" A male Nidoran exclaimed.

"Ah, a few things. But-"

"Good enough!"

* * *

BLAIZE'S POV

Enough was enough. I needed to find Rookie and find out where he came from, _NOW_. It had been a whole _WEEK_ since our training session and I hadn't been able to get Rookie alone for even a second.

Then again, I hadn't actually tried. I had just watched him as he and his team ate, trained, and did missions.

...yes, I followed him on some missions. The moment I found out where he was from, I was going to give that kid some tips on exploring. Honestly, how had he survived for so long?

And no, Alvero I am not acting stalkerish. This is simply my way of taking care of the Guild's precious future.

The fact that my boredom is staved is a nice little extra, I _assure_ you!

But back to the topic. I made sure that Mini-A was out of the way, on some mission with his team, before I went to find Rookie. For whatever reason, Mini-A seemed to appear at the last second when I would normally find Rookie alone.

I was at my limit. I needed to know.

So, in the most secretive manner known to man and Pokemon, I located Rookie. In a fashion that renown thieves would have nodded approvingly at, I carefully approached him and plucked him from the group without ever revealing my presence.

* * *

RYAN'S POV

So we were walking down the street, discussing what to do after finishing the B-rank that we had just completed. We had recently began those after Tock suggested it. No one complained, so we did them. They weren't that much harder, so we hardly slowed down.

But we were walking and I felt, at the last second, a presence appear beside me before I was hauled up.

I wondered, not for the first time, if I could learn Selfdestruct? Sure, it might kill me if my body isn't strong enough. But it would make anyone think twice before picking me up like a ragdoll ever again.

"In celebration of his new rank," a badge with a silver center was shoved in my paw unexpectedly, "I'm going to be bringing Rookie here on a guy's night out.

"No ladies," he said towards Sin, who bristled, "and no manchildren," he shot at Axe.

"Do I have any say in this matter?" I asked once I gave up on exploding violently.

Someday I would explode. _Someday_.

Thinking back on it, that was a stupid desire. I should've wanted to have the ability to teleport or something to avoid the crazies.

Speaking of crazies. "Not in the least," Blaize chirped and was off, me in tow.

"You didn't steal this, did you?" I held up the Silver rank badge questioningly.

Blaize shot me an irritated look and said, "Nope. Tock asked me to deliver it. He said that he forgot the last time you were there."

I frowned and Blaize sent a questioning look my way.

Tock had looked terrible the last time we had been in his office. His normal flat-backed posture was Alvero-slumped and his eye-bags had bags of their own. He forgot stuff like any other person, but I hadn't ever seen him forget something like a promotion.

Despite having a relationship that was almost strictly superior-employee in nature, I couldn't help but wonder if his health was worsening. I had determined that he did have something like insomnia. His sleep patterns were terrible, and sometimes non-existent.

I decided that I would speak to Hap the next time I saw her.

"It's nothing. Thanks for delivering this. Can-"

"We're here!"

I had a vague sight of a door that was tilted in a downwards angle before it was opened and I was tossed through unceremoniously.

I'm sad to say that I had enough experience being tossed that I was able to twist and land on my feet with only a little effort. When I looked up, I noticed that the entire room was staring at me. Pokemon sitting at simple wooden tables in a bar-like setting were now focused on me.

Seeing that, I decided the snarky route was prudent.

When wasn't it?

"No appreciation for grand entrances?" I plastered a smirk on and put my hand on my hip, the picture of snark and/or sarcasm.

Bryson, who was sitting at a table nearby, snorted loudly and turned back to the mug that sat in front of him. Honestly, it looked like a bucket. His reaction had everyone else turning back to what they were doing before.

"Over here," Blaize called to me from a table he had already secured. Somehow, two mugs (regular sized) were on the table already.

I sat in the chair across from him, hating the fact that the seat was much higher than his due to my short stature. I still missed my taller-than-average human body.

I needed to evolve or the shortness would drive me insane.

"What do you want?" Heck yeah, it was rude. But the guy had just abducted me from my team. After what happened a mere week ago, Sin was still edgy about letting me out of her sight. She was oddly protective, but showed it in ways that typically ended in bruises and long training sessions.

"Can't a Pokemon congratulate a fellow member of the Guild for ranking up? Now drink up!"

He pushed the mug over to me and I had it in my grip when he tapped the two wood containers together with a clunk.

He tipped his drink back and began drinking a little bit of it. He didn't gulp it down, surprisingly. Rolling my eyes, I tipped mine back a bit and my eyes opened when I recognized the scent of alcohol. I needed to be sure to sip.

"We never finished talking, before," Blaize said and I set the mug down, feeling the same tension from the woods a week prior.

"No, we didn't," I commented as nonchalantly as I could, eyes roaming the room, when I suddenly tensed.

"Ah, can't talk. I just remembered-"

 _"Cuuuutie!"_ Too slow.

"Alvis, later." At those two words, spoken seriously, Alvis halted mere feet from me, arms extended.

And then there's me, leaning out of my seat and escape plan already prepared, but not yet enacted.

With a pouting expression, she turned back to the table she had come from. Alvero was sitting with her, drinking something that steamed in the already warm air.

"Try to run, and I'll sic her on you," Blaize threatened casually, forcing me back into my seat.

"Fine. Where are you from?" I drank a little more from the mug, actually a little thirsty. I wasn't feeling anything yet.

"Earth. You wouldn't happen to know a place called that?"

And just like that, my body was vibrating. Shock froze me, keeping me from speaking.

But what if there was a twist? For all I knew, there was a place named Earth here. There were towns and cities with more mundane names back homes.

I needed clarification.

Relaxed slightly, I-

"If the next few words aren't where you're from, I am going to sic Alvis on you." I saw teeth gleaming from a grin across the room, courtesy of a certain Lucario.

"I'm from the USA," I said, meeting his requirements.

His eye widened and he muttered, "An American? Huh."

I grinned at his words and only the knowledge of the roomful of Pokemon kept me from shouting excitedly.

"You're human!" I whispered excitedly instead.

"No, I'm a Blaziken," Blaize grinned while sipping at his drink.

I rolled my eyes and whispered, "How long have you been here?"

* * *

I hope everyone enjoyed this! It's the longest yet. Please review and tell me what you think.

Answer: Hmm. It's a bit narcissistic, but I think I would want the Aura Stone from my very own fanfiction. Barring that, I think I would want a keyblade. I would love to have a weapon I wouldn't have to tote around. (I'm a lazy sucker.)

Question: Who here reads/writes fanfiction secretly, and who fangirls/fanboys over fics they read to their friends/family?


	5. It's Magma, Not Lava

It Shall Begin and End With Pain chap 5

I have begun college! Literally as I'm typing this, I'm relaxing in a dorm room and doing nothing at all. (Classes start tomorrow, so that won't last long!)

Disclaimer: I own Ryan and that's basically it! Though I do have a Pokeball that my sis crocheted for me that I love!

Chapter 5

It's Magma, Not Lava

* * *

ALVIS' POV

"Those two really seem to be hitting it off," I grinned and turned back to Alvero.

He finished his sip of the steaming hard cider before answering, "To be fair, I think part of that is because Blaize is hopelessly drunk. Or on his way."

I turned and took a closer look. Blaize was grinning stupidly and hunched over in his seat, some liquid spilled on himself and the table.

"I thought he got himself something that's really weak and then watered it down even more?"

"He did."

I shook my head at our esteemed leader's lack of alcoholic tolerance.

"Didn't he also get Rookie something that was pretty dang strong?"

"The same kind that knocked Blaize out after two sips? Yeah."

"Poor kid."

* * *

RYAN'S POV

 _One_ drink. Not even the full drink, seeing as he spilled a little. That's all it took to make Blaize begin to get tipsy and slur his words.

That meant a conversation was hardly possible between the two of us and it was infuriating me to no end.

I had just found out that he was from Earth and that had been there for "Since before you were a speck in ya pappy's pants." I grimaced at that mental image while he continued to tell me how he appeared in the middle of nowhere, met Alvero, then met Alvis, then the rest was hardly understandable. He was well and truly drunk after consuming a single drink.

I really should have stopped the Spinda from wobbling over and refilling his cup and laying a new one down for me, but I was too busy wondering how such a chronically dizzy Pokemon managed to not spill drinks all the time.

Yet another mystery of the world that would remain unsolved.

To pass the time between his muttered half-whispered words, I would drink from the not-yet-drained mug in front of me. I was careful and kept watching for signs that it was beginning to mess with my judgement. Now and again, I would try to ask him questions. Aside from anecdotes that usually didn't make sense or he didn't finish, I got nothing.

"We'd better get him to bed," Alvero walked up to the table a minute before I was going to try to escape. I was on my second cup and almost finished, still not feeling anything, when he came over.

"Ah, are you okay?" He looked pointedly at the two cups, one with just a little bit of liquid left in it, and back to me.

"I feel fine. He must've got me something really weak."

Judging by his surprised look, whatever I was drinking might have been stronger than I thought. Did I have a natural high alcohol tolerance?

Nah. Must be something else. I was tiny and had never drank before.

It was when Alvero was hauling a snoring, out cold Blaziken over his shoulder that I remembered the last member of team Baal.

Just in time to see a bone spike appear in my left peripheral and someone appear very close behind me.

"Any chance you are intoxicated enough to simply let me go?" She had a mug in front of her before. Maybe she had a strong drink as well?

Arms wrapped around me and a giggle was the only answer I got before being held against her chest while carried out of the restaurant.

At least it wasn't by Ben's sheath. Not an improvement, but it was something.

"Why the name Baal? What does it stand for?" I knew I wasn't going to escape, so I decided to suck up my pride (what little I had left) and talk. I mostly ignored her petting of my head as she followed Alvero, who was still carrying a drunken Blaize.

"The first three letters are the first letters of our names. Blaize, Alvis, and Alvero-"

"I think you mean 'Blaize, Alvero, and Alvis,'" Alvero piped up from ahead.

"Nope, I'm pretty sure I got it right."

"Ah, not exactly-"

" _Okay_!" I interrupted them quickly. "What does the 'l' come from?"

"It's the second letter of all of our names," Alvero provided from ahead.

I thought about it for a moment and nodded.

"Smart, I guess. Can you let me go now?"

"I haven't got my fill of you, yet," Alvis stated simply before squeezing me a little tighter.

If I ever found the one who put me in this world within a hundred miles of Alvis, I was going to kick their ass. This was especially cruel! Inhumane! Or should it be called inpokemane?

Damn you, unnamed bringer of this suffering!

"So what did he order for me and what did he get himself? I want to avoid whatever he got." The hangover was bound to be a bitch when he began to recover. If his drink managed to take down a Pokemon of his size, I wanted to keep well away from it.

But, despite my desire to keep away from alcohol, the thing I was drinking tasted pretty good. And if it didn't even give me a buzz after two whole cups, it couldn't have a very high alcohol percentage.

They both claimed to not know what the drinks were called while sending amused looks back and forth. They went over my head both literally and metaphorically. What was so funny?

* * *

SIN'S POV

My claws clenched along with my teeth and I delivered a finishing kick that sent my sparring partner across the room and through the paper walls. She joined the pile of sparring partners that had fallen to me in the last ten minutes.

I was beginning to relax, just a little.

"You good now?" Axe asked from the sidelines, wisely keeping well out of my range.

"Next!" I barked and turned to the next partner, a Sandslash whose back spikes were shaking and who was sweating bullets.

"I'll take that as a 'No.'"

I went into The Circle and, after Machamp said 'Begin' yet again, we exchanged attacks. He lasted for three minutes before I was able to make him stumble and kick him in the belly, sending him into the pile. He had a nice and soft landing, if a painful liftoff.

"How about now?"

I thought for a moment. Right then, if I saw Blaize, I would probably try to break a few of his bones.

"I'm good," I said and walked out of the training hall. It was an improvement from when I had gone it, seeing as what I had originally desired to do to the fire type was illegal in most known civilized places and a great many uncivilized locations as well.

I heard sobs of relief as I left and elected to ignore them. I had a teammate to find.

"I think this is yours," I barely held out my arms fast enough to suddenly find Ryan in them.

I squeezed him closer, on reflex, and said, "Where's bird-brain?"

"Out cold. Cutie here drank him under the table," Ryan batted away Alvis' paw when it came close to petting him. Judging by the fur on top of his head, he had already been petted for awhile before being deposited to me.

Alvis, after a short giggle, disappeared in what I recognized as Extremespeed, leaving me with my two teammates.

There was a short pause.

I dropped Ryan at once.

"Oww!"

"Oh stop whining!"

* * *

RYAN'S POV

I rubbed the base of my tail and wished, not for the first time, that Sin was a bit more gentle with how she cared for others. Was dropping me really necessary?

"She's been blowing off steam in the training hall," Axe said as he helped me to my feet.

I cringed and asked, "How big was the pile?"

"A Snorlax could've relaxed on it comfortably."

"Ouch. Anyone break anything?"

"One or two got some bad sprains."

"Oh...that's an improvement on last time!"

Sin twitched next to me and I was suddenly aware of the claws that were rubbing against each other.

I had some self-preservation instinct, and quickly dug out the Silver Rank badge that Blaize had given me.

"Ah, it looks like I'm the same rank as you guys!"

Sin seemed to relax just a little at this new distraction.

"Freakin finally. Now we can tell Tock to begin counting our points again."

I was confused until Axe told me that they had asked Tock to wait until I was the same rank as them to begin counting their points for the next rank. Something about not wanting me to feel like I'm holding them back.

Sin told me that I had better not give her a sappy hug when I smiled at their thoughtfulness. Sin grumbled something else and headed towards the Guild.

"Let's go take a mission!"

* * *

So we went back to the Guild. We checked out the Wanted Side and found that everything available was either too low level to be worth it or too high to chance.

"What about this one?" I pointed to one with a ?-ranking. I had only seen those once or twice before and hadn't bothered looking at them.

"Those are always a mystery. Tock isn't sure about what to rank them, so it's really just up to whoever sees it to decide whether it's too much for them or not," Axe explained while I scanned the information at the top.

"A volcano?"

"Hmm?" Sin looked to me.

"This mission is in a place called Cinder Mountain. I think I heard someone say it's sort of a volcano on the inside." It was weird when I saw Mystery Dungeon that didn't make at least a little sense. From what I was told, Cinder Mountain had no giant hole at the top. There were volcanic vents all around it that let out gas and sometimes magma to the surface, but no hole at the top that made it an actual volcano.

Then again, I wasn't a volcano expert. For all I know, there are volcanoes that are like that.

"That place is bound to be tough-"

"But are usually full of valuable stuff," Sin said with a thoughtful tone.

"That makes sense. Volcanoes bring in gems from under the surface with the magma and some would be left behind." Like most times, the two of them gave me an odd look at the sudden piece of trivia before turning back to the matter at hand.

"What's the mission itself?" Sin had a look in her eye that told me she was becoming really interested. Though we took lower ranked missions, Sin made it a point to find the ones that had chances of stronger Pokemon to fight in them. Unless a Pokemon was obviously beyond our level, there were a horde of them, or we were weakened, Sin would focus on the stronger opponents immediately. Axe and myself had to bail her out of a bad situation on more than one occasion.

Axe slipped the paper off of the board and read aloud, "It says, 'I know that there's a Golden Chamber on the 27th floor. Go get the treasure for me!' The reward is not stated."

"Didn't we stumble on a Golden Chamber that one time? The one with all the Reviver Seeds?"

I remember that mission because the two of them had been ecstatic when we found nine Reviver Seeds in the middle of a chamber that seemed to be made of pure gold. I was crushed when they told me that anything that was taken from the room that wasn't the obvious 'Treasure' would disappear upon leaving the floor. So if I had broken a chunk of the gold out of the floor or walls, it wouldn't be with me when I went to the next floor.

We still had those Reviver Seeds. Each of us carried three in our bags at all times now instead of just one.

I had never seen one in action. We were almost always careful in Mystery Dungeons and used Escape Orbs when we were afraid of being overwhelmed or we weren't prepared.

From what I was told, they would revive you if you were knocked out or, in the worst case scenario, killed.

"Let's do it!" I jumped at Sin's sudden exclamation. I had zoned out again and missed some of the conversation.

"Ah, we might want to wait until tomorrow," I pointed outside at the shadows that were stretching out in front of the Guild. It was a pain to exit the Guild in the morning and have the sunlight hit you right in the eyes.

The fire in Sin's eyes died a little before she nodded.

"Fine. Let's go see if Ivysaur has some heal seeds in stock."

* * *

We may have made a mistake choosing this mission.

"I knew we were headed into a volcano, and I realize that there are supposed to be a lot of fire types. But why, for the love of all things holy, must they all know Flamethrower!?"

Though I had little reason to complain, seeing as both of my teammates had a weakness to fire, I was still panting like a dog and had a decidedly singed look on most of my body.

Sin held out a paw and crushed a small flame that was burning some fur on my arm out of existence with a nearly inaudible hiss.

"Thanks," I said, not for the first time. Though Sin was weak to fire, the very short fur that she had didn't seem to burn as easily as mine. Axe, being a Treecko, had scale-like skin. He looked dried out in the oppressive heat of the magma that seemed to be everywhere.

Considering that all the light in the Dungeon came from magma alone, we were all looking forward for this mission's end.

"Which floor are we on?" Axe asked as he sat on a boulder of obsidian close to the center of the room. Most of the floor and walls were made of the black rock. The areas that weren't seemed to be made of a rock that glowed red hot in the heat. We made it a point to avoid getting near those.

"Seventeen," I said, having carefully kept track of the floors we had finished. Unlike most other Mystery Dungeons, we had gone down instead of up when we located stairs.

It felt like we were steadily making our way down into some form of Hell each time we went down them. The fact that it got steadily hotter as we descended didn't help dispel the idea.

"Ten more to go," Sin muttered, taking a swig of her water. I checked mine and found it about three-fourths of the way full. Glancing at Axe and Sin, both who were taking slow but deep drinks from their canteens, I became a little worried. They had been drinking far more than I had.

"Are you two alright on water?"

"I'm fine," Sin said, putting her canteen away as she said it.

Axe took a moment to look at his remaining amount before he said, "I should have enough. Let's go."

We stood and I took the lead. The tunnels seemed to be hewn from the obsidian by precision tools and were, aside from occasional cracks or chunks missing, perfectly smooth. They were about four meters wide, ten meters high, and we walked in a triangle formation with me at the front. We had all agreed that, with their weaknesses to fire, it would be best if I was the one to possibly get blasted first as it wouldn't hurt me as badly.

My fur protested the treatment as well as my nerves.

"Something's up ahead!" Through the dim lighting of the tunnels, I was able to see a shape coming our way. My ear twitched when I heard a flapping sound and saw that the Pokemon was a Butterfree when it came close enough.

...what?

"Oh thank Arceus!" The Butterfree flew over to us after taking a moment to look at us. He had a panicked visage before he took a second look and relaxed.

"Are you the exploration team I sent for?"

We gave him a blank look after exchanging confused looks between ourselves.

"Sorry, we just stumbled onto you. Do you need help?" I said politely. The guy was a potential client and, despite my urge to simply push past him and get to the stairs as quickly as possible so we could leave, that would look bad for the Guild.

"Yes! Are you with the Guild?"

"We are," I pulled out my Ivycross Guild badge and showed him it. "If you want, we can get you out of here and you can wait with Andy, the one who brought us here."

"Yes! That would be marvelous. I've been stuck here for two days, unable to get close to the stairs."

This perked our interest and Axe asked, "Why can't you get to the stairs?"

"A huge group of Camerupt are lounging in the lava-"

"Magma," I corrected. "Magma is lava that hasn't reached the surface yet. We're underground, so it's still magma."

There was a moment of silence where everyone stared at me.

"Anyways," Butterfree began. "A large group of them are lounging in the magma and attack anything that gets close."

Sin frowned and I felt the same. We had not run into very many Camerupt thus far, and avoided the ones we did find. They were strong enemies that we couldn't afford exhausting ourselves against.

"We'll find a way," Axe said before turning his badge towards Butterfree.

"Andy, we've got someone who needs to be rescued."

"Understood. They ready?"

"Yup."

Butterfree flashed for a moment and was gone the next. He would wait with Andy until we were ready to get out of there.

"Let's go find the stairs and see how bad it really is," Axe walked past the two of us, taking another swig of his dwindling water supply.

We found the room-cavern, actually. It was a large cavern and there were pools of magma strewn throughout it with at least a dozen Camerupt lazing about. The stairs were in the middle of the cavern, magma making the air around it hazy.

Just seeing living Pokemon in those pools made me sweat and I felt phantom burns from the multiple injuries I had taken from various fire types.

We retreated a little ways into the tunnel before speaking.

"What's our options?" I asked them. Despite our ranks being the same, they had more experience than me in these matters. I had no problem delegating the power to the two of them.

"There's always the combat option-"

"No!" Both of us, Axe and myself, barked at the same time. Sin huffed but did not push the option any further.

"What sort of orbs do we have?" I asked Axe, who held most of the team's supply.

"We're almost out. We've got two Escape, two Blowback, one Evasion, and one Rainy Orb."

"Will the Rainy Orb even work here?" I asked.

"Yeah. Don't ask why-"

"Wasn't going to." I had long since stopped trying to figure out the eccentricities of Orbs. I already had enough of this world to try, and ultimately fail, to figure out.

"Let's keep the Rainy Orb for later, just in case there's a river of l-magma in the way." I smiled at Sin's correction and she rolled her eyes.

"I think an Evasion Orb might be useful," Axe said, staring at the ground in deep thought.

I felt a shiver run up my spine at the small smile that came to his face.

* * *

"For the record: I hate this plan," I said very quietly, cradling the orb in my paw.

"Just make sure to run fast and don't get killed," Sin growled. Her way of encouragement, I'm sure.

"Yeah, put that on my gravestone," I muttered before crushing the Evasion Orb in my paw and feeling the energy that was released make the world come into hyper focus to my eyes. Anyone that didn't have their accuracy buffed, artificially or otherwise, would view me as a slightly indistinct blur if I moved quickly enough. My Detect Band helped as well.

And I was planning to do just that, become a blur, I mean. I dove to the right to dodge a Lava Plume from a Camerupt that glared angrily at me from the side of a pool of magma.

More fire attacks were blasted my way. Earth Power was a bitch to dodge as the only indication I got of it about to hit was when the earth bubbled beneath my feet.

I ran around the room, waiting for an opening. I used Force Palm a few times to lessen the blows from some attacks and knock a few Camerupt away when they got too close for comfort.

There! I slid under the belly of one Camerupt and sprinted for the stairs. I bared my teeth, doing the closest thing to a grin that I could manage in between sucking down magma-baked oxygen.

Too slow. On the first step of the stairs, flames surrounded my left arm from my paw to elbow and I shrieked in pain. Hugging the limb to my body, I stumbled up the stairs and felt myself being dragged up the rest of the way by my teammates. I lay on the ground, holding my agonized limb against my body and resisting the urge to look at the damage.

I knew it wasn't pretty.

"Eat!" I had my eyes closed, gritting my teeth against the pain, and opened my mouth when I felt something poking on my lips. I recognized the taste of a Heal Seed and forced myself to swallow, despite nausea threatening to make me send everything up. A clawed paw held me up a little so a backpack, probably mine, could be slid under me and sit me up a little.

"Here's an Oran Berry," Axe said and I felt the texture of one pushed against my lips. It was shriveled from the heat, and I still felt like throwing up, but I still took a bite out of it.

"Axe, get the bandages," Sin told him and I heard the sounds of him doing so.

"Ryan, we need to bandage your arm," Sin told me gently, but firmly. The reason was due to me still holding onto it with my good paw. The flesh had no fur on it and felt like it had been boiled in hellfire. I felt some bubbles under my fingers and tried not to picture my limb too vividly.

It didn't work.

I knew it would hurt. I held out my arm and felt fresh pain when linen began wrapping around the limb.

I won't lie. I had tears leaking out of my eyes the whole time. It-

* * *

"-gone to such a high level place with not one, but two members having weaknesses like that!"

I shot up at the shout and yelped when Hap pushed me back down. She wasn't rough. It was just that it moved my arm-

My arm was mummified. The bandages around it were damp and tightly wrapped so that not a single strand of fur could be seen. Not that there would be any to be found.

I found that I had, along with a slight headache, a burning sensation that ran up and down my arm in waves.

It took a minute to ask, "What happened?"

There was a moment of silence before I looked to my left and saw Sin, Axe, and Blaize standing a little ways away while Hap messed with some stuff that lay on a table with wheels that was rolled up next to my bed.

"You passed out, so we decided that you needed to get back to Hap," Axe provided, pushing off from the wall he was leaning against. He seemed a little green-pun really not intended-and I assumed that we hadn't been there for very long if the teleportation sickness was still messing with him.

"You shouldn't have been there at all," Blaize growled suddenly, causing me to pause from what I was about to say.

"Tock said-" Sin began, only to he cut off by Blaize.

"Tock only stops you if he knows what you want to do is beyond your level. This was within acceptable parameters, so he left the judgement up to the leader: You. It was up to you to decide whether you thought that two members that are weak to fire types and one rookie should go into a **BLOODY VOLCANO!"**

I winced, both from the obvious anger that was coming off of him and from the loudness of his anger. My headache throbbed and I couldn't hold in a slight moan from the ache.

The silence that came after was almost as painful as the yelling. The burning made me cringe further and I resisted the urge to grab at my arm, knowing that would only cause more pain.

"The two of you, out," Hap turned towards them and, from their paling faces, I assumed that she sent them a scary look.

No, not the move, Scary Look. But a _scary look™_. The kind that sends chills down the spine of men and women, and especially children, everywhere.

I even shivered a bit and I didn't see it. I just felt it secondhand.

Hap turned back to be, thankfully no longer scary faced. The other, previously arguing, occupants of the room left while Hap held out what I recognized as a Sleep Seed.

"Eat."

So I ate.

What? You think I'm going to argue with the person making sure that I got better?

* * *

BLAIZE'S POV

A tree burst apart into so many splinters under my fist.

"Blaize."

A boulder was ripped out of the ground and sent flying. It was taking too long to break against the cliff face I stood at the bottom of, so I jumped and smashed it myself with a powerful kick.

"Blaize."

Why did that stupid Sneasel go there!?

Another tree was brutally incinerated under an Overheat.

"Blaize."

And where was I during this? I was shitfaced! Passed out and unable to do anything!

"Blaize!"

"What!" I yelled back up the cliff, where my teammates were sitting. A few flames flickered out of my mouth, and the air shivered from the heat I exuded, but I felt no desire to send anything towards them. Not anymore, anyways.

"We should head back!" Alvis shouted down, sunlight gleaming off of her Kamina glasses.

"Why?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Because you've been at this for two days straight and the Rookie is probably healed up by now," Alvero said at a normal pitch, his voice carrying down to where I stood.

"Really?"

"Yes," Alvero pointed to his left and I turned around.

The cliff face that I stood at the bottom of was actually at the edge of its own cliff. It was the entrance to a Mystery Dungeon called Abysmal Canyon and one could not see the bottom if they looked over.

For the last two days, I had fought wild Pokemon and generally destroyed the flora and fauna around the Mystery Dungeon to blow off some steam. Flames and ash still dominated most of the landscape.

Was I feeling guilty? Nope. Plants grew faster around Mystery Dungeons and all the plants would be replaced in maybe two or three months. The Pokemon I fought would be fine.

"I see."

"We're headed back. See you there."

I nodded at the two and they were beyond my line of sight a moment later.

My mood, the one I had been holding up for two days, had been broken. I felt some fatigue from the lack of sleep and constant movement and move usage, but it wouldn't keep me from getting back to the Guild.

"The Rookie better be okay," I growled before making my way back to the Guild. It would take me five or so hours at a dead sprint. Alvis and Alvero would have teleported back, knowing that the run would be good for me.

* * *

RYAN'S POV

"You're off the mission roster," Hap said, her tone final and far more damning than one would expect.

"What!?" I was shocked at her words, seeing as they were contradicting her previous statement.

"You said that I would be able to get back to work tomorrow," I said, carefully. I had seen Hap a little annoyed. No way did I want to see her angry.

"That's before I remembered the great Daring contest four years ago."

"Eh?"

"Ken broke several bones throughout his body and was stuck in here for a few weeks. The lights all throughout the Guild would flicker and sometimes shatter. I thought he was okay, and his aura would just calm down, but it turns out that he was still injured. He had several minor fractures that I missed that got him back in bed for another couple weeks."

"But what does that have to do with me?"

"Crystals all over the place are flickering. It's hardly noticeable, but more than what is normal. You're still injured, so you're still off the roster."

I collapsed and let out a groan.

"You can leave, but you will come to me every five or so hours and are not allowed to do any training. None."

"I understand," I sighed and got off of the bed I had hardly moved from since laying down on it.

"Your supplies was put in your room."

"Alright." I left the room, arm still bandaged. Blue fur stuck out from under the bandages in some places, but I still avoided unwrapping it.

Some members of the Guild asked me how I was doing and cringed in sympathy when I told them I was not allowed on missions or to train. Just about everyone has been in my position, so they knew how so very bored I was going to be. A few passed me Rawst berries with hopes that I got better soon.

You would expect me to be happy to have a legitimate excuse to be lazy. But no. Forced relaxation does not have the same feeling as being lazy when there's something better to be doing.

It's just how it's supposed to be.

I cursed the technicalities of Reviver Seeds. Apparently, me passing out from the pain wasn't enough to activate the Reviver Seed. If I had died from it, then I would have returned to the same state I had been in before I was injured. But because the attack did not knock me out outright, or kill me, the Reviver Seed wasn't able to help. It was the same situation as if I was put to sleep by a Sleep Seed. Since it wasn't killing me, the Reviver Seed wouldn't engage.

Axe and Sin got me out of there the moment I passed out and teleported straight to the Medical Area. Technically, Andy broke the rules doing that, but wasn't punished too harshly.

I was walking into the mess hall for lunch, having wandered about until that point, and saw Alvis and Alvero sitting at a table inside.

I grabbed my plate and got a seat next to Alvero. I wasn't openly inviting an opportunity to Alvis.

"Where's Blaize?"

"Blowing off some steam."

I visibly shivered and they agreed with my reaction with a nod.

"You alright?" Alvis asked, eyeing my bandaged arm and obvious reliance on my right paw.

"It's not too bad. I'm off the Missions Roster, though."

Alvis flinched while Alvero gave me a pitying look. I think he understood my plight regarding forced laziness.

We made small talk and Alvis did not jump me when she finished.

Poor Ken, however, had the misfortune to be right in the path of Alvis as she was leaving and was plucked up before he or Lilly could react.

I finished and decided to go for a walk. I dropped by my room and grabbed Ben and his sheath before I left, finding an odd sense of completeness from his now-familiar weight. I headed in a direction opposite of anywhere I had been thus far. Even if I couldn't train, maybe I could find a nice place to relax.

I made my way through a forest, a different one than the one that I had come into the world from. The well-beaten path was traveled at a relaxed pace and I turned around after what felt like two hours to begin heading back. Hap had ordered me to be there every five hours and I would be arriving at around the time I needed to get there.

I was leaving the woods and entering the outskirts of Ivycross Town when I felt the sudden urge to stop, turn around, and take the walk again. A faint premonition of something to come?

I shook the idea off and continued onward, wondering what had caused the feeling.

I didn't have to wait long for the answer.

* * *

Yes, I know that it has been a pretty darn long time since the last chapter. My apologies for that!

I'll be getting this out on my first day of college, so tell me how you liked it! My update schedule will be erratic and controlled by what I need to do in college. My apologies.


End file.
